Toog Tree (LA Urban Forest Program)

Toog Tree

Bischofia javanica

Description ⁹

Trees to 40 m tall, to 2.3 m d.b.h., evergreen; stem straight, branching lower; bark gray-brown to brown, ca. 1 cm thick, with red latex; branchlets glabrous. Leaves palmately 3(-5)-foliolate; stipules membranous, lanceolate, ca. 8 mm, caducous; petiole 8-20 cm; terminal petiolule 2-5 cm, lateral petiolules 5-20 mm; leaflet blades ovate, elliptic, obovate, or elliptic-ovate, 7-15 × 4-8 cm, papery, sparsely pubescent only on nerves, glabrescent, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, margins with 2 or 3 teeth per cm, apex acute or caudate-acuminate. Plants dioecious. Inflorescence axillary, paniculate; male peduncle 8-13 cm, puberulent to glabrous, female peduncle 15-27 cm, pendent. Male flowers to 2.5 mm in diam.; sepals membranous, semiorbicular, adaxially concave, ladle-shaped, abaxially puberulent outside; filaments short; pistillode small, peltate, pubescent. Female flowers: sepals similar to male but oblong-ovate, margins membranous; ovary smooth, glabrous, 3- or 4-locular; styles 3 or 4, linear, entire. Fruits globose or subglobose, 6-13 mm in diam., brownish. Seeds oblong, ca. 5 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Oct.

Diagnostic ¹⁰

"Deciduous trees, to 30 m high; bark pale brown, thin, scaly; blaze red, fibrous; exudation red, watery; branches spreading. Leaves 3-foliate, alternate, stipulate; stipules lateral, cauducous; rachis 7-20 cm long, stout, grooved above, glabrous; petiolule of lateral leaflets 3-20 mm long, of terminal leaflet 15-40 mm long, slender, glabrous; lamina 5.5-18 x 3-9 cm, elliptic, elliptic-ovate, ovate, obovate or orbicular, base acute or round, apex acuminate, margin serrate, glabrous, membranous; lateral nerves 6-9 pairs, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers unisexual, green, in axillary and lateral pedunculate paniculate racemes; male flowers: 2-3 mm across; pedicels very short, slender; tepals 5, obovate, concave, imbricate, concealing the anthers; stamens 5, filaments short; anthers globular; pistillode short, broad; female flowers: 2-35 mm across; pedicels longer than in the male, stout, elongating in fruit; tepals 5, linear lanceolate; ovary superior, globose, 3-celled, exserted, ovules 2, in each cell; style 3, linear; stigmatic through out on the inner face. Fruit a berry, globose 7 mm across, reddish-brown; seeds 3, trigonus."