About Dillenia pentagyna Roxb.
Dillenia pentagyna Roxb. is a deciduous tree that typically reaches 6 to 15 meters in height. It has twisting twigs, smooth grayish bark that peels in flakes, and stout, hairless branches. Its leaves are petiolate (stalked), hairless, oblong to obovate-oblong, and 3 to 50 centimeters long. Flowers emerge before new leaves, growing in clusters of 2 to 7, with yellow petals; the main flowering period across its range is April to May. Fruits are globose, 0.5 centimeters in diameter, and the tree produces black ovoid seeds that lack an aril. For populations growing on Mekong islands in northeastern Cambodia, flowering occurs from February to March, fruiting from March to April, and leaves grow from May to November. This species is distributed across the Lesser Sunda Islands including Timor, Sulawesi, Jawa, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Hainan, South-Central China including Yunnan, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Assam, East Himalaya, Bhutan, Nepal, India ranging from Punjab and Gujarat to Assam, Mizoram, Maharashtra, West Bengal and South India, and Sri Lanka. Its general habitat is rainforests, thickets, and hills below 400 meters elevation. In Cambodia, it grows in groups in open clear forests. In Pinus latteri-dominated forests at 400 to 1000 meters elevation in Kirirom National Park, southwestern Cambodia, it grows in the 2 to 8 meter tall understorey beneath a 20 meter tall pine canopy. It also occurs on Mekong islands in Steung Treng and Kratie provinces, northeastern Cambodia, in deciduous seasonal hardwood dipterocarp forest dominated by Dipterocarpaceae species, which sits atop metamorphic sandstone bedrock at 25 to 30 meters elevation. In Phnom Kulen National Park, Siem Reap Province, northwestern Cambodia, it is a common canopy species in Deciduous Dipterocarp Forest. Dillenia pentagyna provides edible fruit, traditional medicine, timber, and charcoal. Tetun-speaking ai tahan traditional medicine practitioners in Belu Regency, West Timor, Indonesia use its bark to treat headaches and migraines. In Cambodia, the fruit is edible, though not widely enjoyed; it is also used as an ingredient in cough remedies. Its timber is used to make humidity-resistant boards and beams, its wood is carved into small knick-knacks, and it makes excellent charcoal. The Bunong people of Mondulkiri Province, northeastern Cambodia drink a decoction of this tree's bark and wood mixed with Oroxylum indicum to treat colds and fever. Kuy- and Khmer-speaking people in villages of Stung Treng and Preah Vihear provinces, north-central Cambodia use the tree as a source of medicine, fuel, and food. Across various regions of India, parts of the plant are used in ethnomedicine: the Koch-Rajbanshi people of western Assam use its seed and bark to treat cancer; people in the Konkan region of Maharashtra apply a paste of water and bark to treat wounds; tribal people in Deogarh district use a decoction of its fruit and Zingiber montanum to treat blood dysentery; ripe fruit is consumed regularly to treat diabetes, and unripe fruit is eaten as a vegetable.
