Local names:
Burmese (ondon laukya), Hindi (maidalagadil,singran,bastuva,rapamba,muga,meda,kalmara,kavkawa), Indonesian (huru manuk), Malay (bangang), Nepali (kutmiro,soalu,ratmanti,kutmero), Thai (kathang)
Litsea monopetala is a small tree up to 18 m tall, bole straight to crooked, up to 60 cm in diameter, bark surface longitudinally fissured, dark greyish, inner bark brown mottled. Leaves alternate, 4.5-17 cm x 2.5-10 cm, blunt to acute, glabrous above, sparsely hairy below, midrib sunken above, with 6-13 pairs of secondary veins which are sunken above, tertiary venation scalariform, distinct below, petiole 1-2.5 cm long. Flowers in peduncled umbellules in short racemes, with (4-)6 tepals and 9-12 stamens. Fruit oblong to ellipsoid, 0.7-1.2 cm long, seated on a small flat perianth cup.
Ecology
L. monopetala is locally common in mixed lowland and montane evergreen or semi-deciduous forest.
Native range
China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand
Tree management
L. monopetala coppice well when lopped.
L. monopetala is locally common in mixed lowland and montane evergreen or semi-deciduous forest.
It is usually propagate by seeds and cuttings.
Fodder: Leaves are the principal food of the muga silkworm (Antheraea assama) in India and are used for fodder in Nepal.
Timber: The density of the wood is about 540 kg/m cubic at 15% moisture content. The wood is used as medang, e.g. for planks and tool handles, house building, furniture and plywood production.
Medicine: Seeds contain an oil which is used medicinally as ointments for rheumatism manufacturing candle in India . Bark is used as astringent and in diarrhoea.