Common Name:

General Information

Garcinia merguensis is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing up to 12 metres tall[, ].
The tree is harvested from the wild for its edible fruit, and for its latex.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia.

Habitat

Lowland forest[]. Common in lowland to lower montane forest, sometimes on limestone, at elevations up to 1,500 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	10.00 m
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

A dioecious species, both male and female forms usually need to be grown if fruit and seed are required. At least some dioecious Garcinia species, however, are able to produce fertile seed even in the absence of fertilization (asexual reproduction). Such seeds would be expected to be genetically identical to the parent[]

Edible Uses

Fruit[]. The fruit is a subglobose, thinly woody berry, 13mm in diameter, tipped by a conspicuous disk-like stigma 3mm wide and with a subpersistent calyx[].

Medicinal

None known

Other Uses

The latex contains a large proportion of free resin acids and a comparatively small amount of resin esters and is quite different from gamboge obtained from Garcinia morella[]. It is not available in commercial quantities, but is used locally. The latex is collected and mixed with twice its volume of turpentine and boiled 3 times to make a pale brown-yellow varnish[].

The wood is red-yellow, flexible and light, but is little used[].

Propagation

Seed - we have no specific information on this species, but the seed of most members of the genus can be slow to germinate, even if sown fresh, often taking 6 months or more[].

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