Common Name:

General Information

Canarium odontophyllum is a mid-canopy tree growing up to 36 metres tall. The bole, which can be free of branches for up to 18 metres, can be up to 86cm in diameter with buttresses at the base[, , ].
The tree is harvested from the wild for its edible seeds and fruit, which are used locally, and for its wood. It is sometimes cultivated for its fruit in Indonesia[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines.

Habitat

Undisturbed lowland forests at elevations up to 600 metres. Mostly on hillsides and ridges, but sometimes also in swamps or along rivers. Quite often found on limestone. In secondary forests usually present as a pre-disturbance remnant tree[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Tree
Height	30.00 m
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

Up to 70% of plants produced from seed are male[].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required[].

Edible Uses

Fruit - raw or used in the same way as olives[]. When eaten fresh, they are soaked in hot water for about 10 minutes until they become soft and are then eaten with sugar or soy sauce in a meal or as a savoury snack[]. The flavour is unique and the texture thick and oily[].

Seed[, , ]. The rich, nutty kernel can be eaten[].

Medicinal

None known

Other Uses

The wood of most species in the genus Canarium is usually soft to moderately hard and probably not very durable in exposed positions. It is not, therefore of any great commercial value and is only used locally or not at all[].

This species is one of the sources of kedondong timber, which is obtained from several species in the family Burseraceae[]. We do not have a specific description of the wood for this species, but the general description of kedondong wood is as follows:-
The heartwood is generally a light brown; it is not sharply demarcated from the 3 - 5cm wide band of lighter-coloured sapwood. The texture is moderately fine and even; the grain is interlocked to wavy; the surface is lustrous. The wood is light in weight; moderately hard; not very durable, being susceptible to fungi, dry wood borers and termites. It seasons somewhat slowly with only a slight risk of checking and distortion; once dry it is moderately stable to stable in service. The wood has a fairly high blunting effect, stellite-tipped and tungsten carbide tools are recommended; it is moderately easy to slightly difficult to plane; finishes smooth to rough; can be easy to very difficult to bore; slightly difficult to difficult to turn; nailing and screwing properties are good; gluing is correct. The wood is suitable for internal use as a general utility timber for planking, cladding, plywood, flooring, furniture, packing cases, pallets and general carpentry work[, ].

Propagation

Seed - we have no specific information for this species but seeds of this genus generally have a hard seed coat and germinate erratically. Filing away some of the seed coat to allow moisture to enter more readily, without damaging the seed, will encourage a faster and more even germination[].

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