Utania racemosa

Utania racemosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Gentianaceae. It occurs in Southeast Asia from Sumatera in Indonesia to the Andaman Islands in India.^[1] Its wood is used for timber and fuel.

Utania racemosa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Gentianales
Family:	Gentianaceae
Genus:	Utania
Species:	U. racemosa
Binomial name
Utania racemosa (Jack) Sugumaran
Synonyms[1]
Fagraea malayana Mart. Fagraea racemosa Jack[2] Fagraea thwaitesii F.Muell.

Description

The tree is a shrub or small that grows usually 3-6m tall, but sometimes as tall as 15 m tall. The trunk measures up to 18 cm in diameter, with smooth to slightly flaky or fissured bark.^[2][3][4] The leaves are elliptic and ovate or lanceolate, they grow as small as 6 cm–30 cm long and 4–20 cm wide. Its surface is dark green, glossy and leathery.^[2]

The tree flowers from ends of crowded branched spikes 6–14 cm long growing under the leaves. Each flower has cream-white petals 2 cm wide. In northeastern Thailand's Bung Khong Long Non-Hunting Area (Bueng Khong Long District), flowers occur from April to June.^[5]

The fruit is oval and has a beaked apex 7–15 mm long and 8–11 mm in diameter, it almost similar to a coffee berry. It has a smooth skin.^[2] When mature, its size is

Features that distinguish this species from other Utania are: rachis in distal half of flower-bearing part of inflorescence and infructescence noticeably thicker than proximal rachis and peduncle; above basal 1–2 tiers, flowering and fruiting tiers usually close-spaced, without clearly visible rachis lengths between tiers; lobes of calyx clasp tightly corolla or fruit base in dried specimens.^{[citation needed]}

Distribution

The tree is found from Sumatera in Indonesia to Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and the Andaman Islands.^[1]

Habitat

The plant grows in seasonal forest and tropical evergreen lowland rainforest, including secondary forest.^[3] In Cambodia described as growing in dense forests on sandy or on clay soils at elevations of between 0 and 2000m.^[4] In the unusual evergreen freshwater swamp forests known as choam in Khmer, occurring in Stung Treng Province, northeast Cambodia, Utania racemosa occurs as a rare understorey tree in permanently and seasonally inundated areas.^[6]

Vernacular names

In Khmer, the plant is known by a variety of names: prôhu:t tük; tatraw tük; and häng tük,^[4] and changka trong.^[6]

In Malay, it is known as sepuleh meaning "restorer". It is also called kopi hutan meaning "forest coffee" because of the shape of its fruits.^[2]

Uses

The wood of the Utania racemosa is used for construction and as firewood in Cambodia.^[4] In Thailand the wood is also used for construction, but the trunk is also used to make chopping-blocks and the flowers are used to worship images of Buddha and offer to monks.^[5]

Malay people make a special drink from its leaves to treat fevers and rheumatism.^[2]

History

M. Suguraman, botanist in Malaysia, transferred this species to Utania in the journal Plant Ecology and Evolution (147(2): 220) in 2014.^[7][3] Suguraman and K.M. Wong (botanist from Singapore) have worked extensively on Gentianaceae.

Further reading

Additional information can be found in the following:

• Hassler, M. 2017. Utania racemosa. World Plants: Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular Plants of the World. In: Roskovh, Y., Abucay, L., Orrell, T., Nicolson, D., Bailly, N., Kirk, P., Bourgoin, T., DeWalt, R.E., Decock, W., De Wever, A., Nieukerken, E. van, Zarucchi, J. & Penev, L., eds. 2017. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life
• Middleton, J.D. (ed.) (2019). Flora of Singapore 13: 1–654. Singapore Botanic Gardens.
• Pandey, R.P. (2009). Floristic diversity of Ferrargunj forest area in South Andaman Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 33: 747-768.
• Sugumaran, M. & Wong, K.M. 2014. Studies in Malesian Gentianaceae, VI. A revision of Utania in the Malay Peninsula with two new species. Plant Ecology and Evolution 147(2): 213-223
• Toyama, H. & al. (2013). Inventory of the woody flora in Permanent plats of Kampong Thom and Kompong Chhnang provinces, Cambodia Acta Phytotaxonomica et Geobotanica 64: 45–105.
• Tropicos.org 2017. Utania racemosa. Missouri Botanical Garden