Utania racemosa

The small tree, usually 3-6m tall, but sometimes 15m tall, trunk up to 18 cm in diameter, with smooth to slightly flaky or fissured bark[2][3] The leaves (elliptic-ovate to elliptic-lanceolate) are (6–)13–25(–30)cm long, and (4–)6–13 (–20)cm wide. The flowers grow terminally, in structure a many flowered panicle, corolla (petals) are cream-white. The fruit has a beaked apex and is smooth, when mature its size is (7–)10–12(–15)mm long, (8–)9–10(–11)mm diam.

Features that distinguish this species from other Utania are: rachis in distal half of flower-bearing part of inflorescence and infructescence noticeably thicker than proximal rachis and peduncle; above basal 1–2 tiers, flowering and fruiting tiers usually close-spaced, without clearly visible rachis lengths between tiers; lobes of calyx clasp tightly corolla or fruit base in dried specimens.

In northeastern Thailand's Bung Khong Long Non-Hunting Area (Bueng Khong Long District), flowers occur from April to June.[4]

The tree is found from Sumatera in Indonesia to Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and the Andaman Islands.[1]

The plant grows in seasonal forest and tropical evergreen lowland rainforest, including secondary forest.[2] In Cambodia described as growing in dense forests on sandy or on clay soils at elevations of between 0-2000m.[3] In the unusual evergreen freshwater swamp forests known as choam in Khmer, occurring in Stung Treng Province, northeast Cambodia, Utania racemosa occurs as a rare understorey tree in permanently and seasonally inundated areas.[5]

In Khmer, the plant is known by a variety of names: prôhu:t tük; tatraw tük; and häng tük,[3] and changka trong.[5]

The wood of the Utania racemosa is used for construction and as firewood in Cambodia.[3] In Thailand the wood is also used for construction, but the trunk is also used to make chopping-blocks and the flowers are used to worship images of Buddha and offer to monks.[4]

M. Suguraman, botanist in Malaysia, transferred this species to Utania in the journal Plant Ecology and Evolution (147(2): 220) in 2014.[6][2] Suguraman and K.M. Wong (botanist from Singapore) have worked extensively on Gentianaceae.

Additional information can be found in the following:

• Hassler, M. 2017. Utania racemosa. World Plants: Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular Plants of the World. In: Roskovh, Y., Abucay, L., Orrell, T., Nicolson, D., Bailly, N., Kirk, P., Bourgoin, T., DeWalt, R.E., Decock, W., De Wever, A., Nieukerken, E. van, Zarucchi, J. & Penev, L., eds. 2017. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life
• Middleton, J.D. (ed.) (2019). Flora of Singapore 13: 1–654. Singapore Botanic Gardens.
• Pandey, R.P. (2009). Floristic diversity of Ferrargunj forest area in South Andaman Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 33: 747-768.
• Sugumaran, M. & Wong, K.M. 2014. Studies in Malesian Gentianaceae, VI. A revision of Utania in the Malay Peninsula with two new species. Plant Ecology and Evolution 147(2): 213-223
• Toyama, H. & al. (2013). Inventory of the woody flora in Permanent plats of Kampong Thom and Kompong Chhnang provinces, Cambodia Acta Phytotaxonomica et Geobotanica 64: 45-105.
• Tropicos.org 2017. Utania racemosa. Missouri Botanical Garden