Region: Africa,
Madagascar.
Habitat: humid and subhumid evergreen forests; elevations below 2000 metres.
Use: medicinal; source of wood for construction, joinery, flooring, panelling, moulding, railway sleepers: enrichment planting in natural forest.
BotanyEvergreen tree; 15 to 25 metres tall; grow slowly.
Stem: bark exudes clear to milky white to red resin;heartwood is chestnut brown and streaked, distinctly demarcated from the up to 6 cm wide band of paler sapwood, grain is generally straight, texture fine; wood is moderately heavy, moderately durable, with fair resistance to termites, rather susceptible to fungal attacks, air dries easily, with little checking and warping, shrinkage medium, works easily, glues satisfactorily, nailing properties are moderate.
Leaves: alternate; opposite or subopposite; simple; petiolate; entire; secondary veins parallel, usually evenly spaced.
Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary panicles. Flowers pedicellate: articulate.
Flowers: dioecious; perianth (4–)5(–6)-parted; sepals minute, connate; petals imbricate; androecium haplostemonous; filaments subulate; anthers dorsifixed; pistillode present or 0 in male flowers; staminodes reduced; disk glabrous, annular to cup-shaped with crenulate margin; carpels 3; style short, 3-branched; stigmas capitate; ovules 3, subapical, only 1 fertile.
Fruit: drupe ellipsoid to oblong; 3-locular or unilocular; exocarp often beige, longitudinally striated; mesocarp fleshy; endocarp chartaceous to cartilaginous.
Seed: cotyledons ruminate, usually connate.