Compilation
Xylocarpus obovatus

Tree 3–15 m high; bark smooth, pale green or yellowish brown and peeling in irregular patches so that the trunk is blotchy. Surface roots laterally compressed and forming a spreading network of ribbon-like pneumatophores with the upper edges protruding above the mud and suggesting a mass of snakes. Leaves up to 10 cm long, glabrous, drying reddish brown; leaflets 2–6, leathery, elliptic, oblong-elliptic or obovate-elliptic, up to 12 x 15 cm, usually rounded at the apex, rarely obtuse or emarginate, cuneate at the base. Inflorescences (2–)4–7 cm long. Calyx up to 0.3 cm long, glabrous. Petals up to 0.65 cm long, glabrous. Staminal tube up to 0.5 cm long, glabrous. Fruit subglobose and obscurely 4-sulcate, usually 14–20 cm in diam., a leathery, tardily dehiscent, septifragal capsule which liberates the seeds on falling to the ground. Seeds 4–8 cm long, germinating in the capsule or soon after their release.