Common Name:

General Information

Antidesma excavatum is occasionally a shrub, but more commonly a tree that can grow up to 25 metres tall. The bole can be straight or crooked, sometimes twisted; it can be free of branches for up to 11 metres and up to 50cm in diameter, sometimes with more than one stem. The plant is said to sometimes adopt a climbing habit[].
The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, dye and source of wood. It seems to be cultivated as a minor fruit tree in eastern Malesia (similar to Antidesma bunius in western Malesia) which means that there may have been a certain amount of dispersal by humans[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines to New Guinea, northern Australia and the western Pacific.

Habitat

Various forest types, coral shores, scrubland and grassland on a range of soil types including sometimes swampy or seasonally inundated land; from the coast to the mountains; at elevations from sea level to 3,600 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Tree
Height	20.00 m
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

Found wild on white sands, sandy loam soils, alluvial soils derived from granite, volcanic and ultrabasic soils, limestone rock[].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required[].

Edible Uses

The fruits are eaten; they are said to make a good jam[].

Medicinal

None known

Other Uses

The fruits yield a purple dye[].

The heartwood is pink, dark pink, red-brown or brown; the sapwood is white, yellow, straw or reddish. The wood is hard (though some collectors report soft slash wood) and dense, with a fine-grain[]. The wood is used for construction, posts, taro planting and digging sticks (becuse it does not blunt easily), bird hide sites etc[]. Wasku people in New Guinea use it to extract sago from the palm trunk prior to washing[].
The wood is used for fuel[327.

Propagation

Seed -

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