Calophyllum pentapetalum
Calophyllum pentapetalum
- Names in the book
- Namakpakan, Tagudin, Iloc. (?).
- Colours
- flowerwhiteRead from the book's description.
- Native range
- Philippines
- In the Philippines, per the book
- It grows near the sea. Blooms in December.
- Family
- Calophyllaceae, filed in the book under Guttiferæ
- Printed as
- Ochrocarpus pentapetalous, Blanco. (Tovomita pentapetala, Blanco.)
- Sources
- Page 38 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
Ochrocarpus pentapetalus, the name printed in the book, is a synonym of Calophyllum pentapetalum.
The plant today
Calophyllum pentapetalum is a species of flowering plant in the family Calophyllaceae. It is a tree native to Palawan and western Luzon in the Philippines. It grows in lowland and montane rain forests, often on ultramafic soils. Calophyllum pentapetalum var. cumingii (Planch. & Triana) P.F.Stevens Calophyllum pentapetalum var. pentapetalum Calophyllum pentapetalum var. pulgarense (Elmer) P.F.Stevens
Excerpt from “Calophyllum pentapetalum” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 137 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 7 provinces: Palawan (6), Zambales (5), La Union (3), Ilocos Norte (2), Nueva Vizcaya (1), Albay (1), Quezon (1).
Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
Uses
An oil expressed from the fruit is used in Ilocos for illuminating purposes. The flowers are astringent and are used in infusion in cases of diarrhœa. The oil of the fruit is also used locally in rheumatism, tumefactions and other painful conditions. In some countries of Malaysia the oil is used in the same way especially in beriberi and the periarticular inflammations incident to puerperium.
Botanical description
Straight trunk about 8′ in diameter, with milky sap. Leaves 1½’ long, sessile, opposite, ovate, expanded, minutely notched and glabrous, with a small downy swelling at the base, superior and glued to the branch. Flowers terminal, in racemes, with opposite pedicels. Calyx white, of 2 rounded leaflets bent downwards. Corolla white, 5 petals (not 4), oval, concave, twice as long as the calyx. Stamens numerous, joined to the receptacle. Filaments slightly longer than the corolla. Anthers oval, 2-celled. Ovary superior, oval. Style longer than the stamens. Stigma peltate, sometimes bilobed, sometimes 4-lobed. Fruit about the size of an acorn, oval, fleshy, containing a milky juice; it is 2-celled and each cell contains a solitary, hard seed; of these one aborts.
Recent research
Europe PMC lists no papers since 2018 that name Calophyllum pentapetalum.