Local names:
English (false coffee tree), Filipino (kukodmon (Bikol)), Indonesian (taji ayam,melingu (Javanese),engkudug biang), Malay (setebal (Peninsular)), Thai (phawa nam)
Fagraea racemosa is a shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 25(-40) m tall, bole up to 30 cm in diameter, without buttresses, bark surface smooth but becoming narrowly and deeply fissured, pale grey to dark grey-brown, inner bark yellow-brown. Leaves very variable, from broadly ovate via elliptical to obovate-oblong, lanceolate or rarely even linear, 5-50 cm x 1-23 cm, apex rounded to acute and often short-to long- acuminate, secondary veins distinctly prominent below, petiole 0.2-5 cm long, stipules connate into an ocrea surrounding the stem. Inflorescence terminal and usually drooping, pedicel with bracteoles at the base; corolla tube funnel-shaped, 2-4 cm long, stigma faintly 2- lobed. Fruit subglobose to ellipsoid-ovoid, apiculate, bluish or greenish or red when ripe. F. racemosa is highly variable and several forms have been distinguished. It develops according to the architectural tree model of Roux, having a monopodial orthotropic trunk with continuous growth and plagiotropic branches, but never by apposition.
Ecology
F. racemosa is found in light to dense primary but more often secondary forest on swampy to dry soil, along rivers but also on podzolized sands, in savannas and lalang grassland vegetation. Locally, it is a conspicuous element of early secondary forest on wastelands and poor soils.
Native range
Australia, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vietnam
Tree management
Husbandry: Double stems should be removed. Thinning in cycles of 5 years up to the age of 30 years is appropriate for plantations; thereafter every 10 years. The lower branches are very persistent and pruning these promotes height growth. F. racemosa reproduce easily by means of root suckers and coppice freely; locally, trees may be often pollarded for poles.
F. racemosa is found in light to dense primary but more often secondary forest on swampy to dry soil, along rivers but also on podzolized sands, in savannas and lalang grassland vegetation. Locally, it is a conspicuous element of early secondary forest on wastelands and poor soils.
It is used as firewood.
Timber: The density of the wood is 700-870 kg/m cubic at 15% moisture content. The wood is used as tembesu, but the timber is often only available in small dimensions. It is used for general construction and combs.
Medicine: A decoction of leaves, bark, roots and flowers is used for medicinal purposes, mainly as a tonic after fever and for pains in the loins, but in the Philippines also as an antidote against snake bites. Wood-tar is used to blacken teeth.
F. racemosa is planted as a live fence.