Gatasan
Garcinia venulosa
- Names in the book
- Binukaw, Tag., applied to both trees, though the first is also called Gatasan pulá in Tagalo and Taklag̃-anak in Pampango.
- Colours
- fruityellow, green
- Native range
- Philippines
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Very common throughout the islands, abounding in the mountains of San Mateo and Morong. Blooms in August.
- Family
- Clusiaceae, filed in the book under Guttiferæ
- Printed as
- Garcinia venulosa, Choisy. (Cambogia venulosa, Blanco.)
- Sources
- Page 36 on Project Gutenberg
The plant today
The native range of this species is Philippines (Luzon). It is a tree and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.
From Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, CC BY 3.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 151 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 9 provinces, most often Quezon (5), Laguna (4), Pampanga (2), Benguet (1), Bulacan (1), Ilocos Norte (1), Palawan (1), Pangasinan (1), and 1 more.
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.
The book gives one account for this plant and Binukaw (Batuan) (Garcinia Cambogia), so the text below appears on each page.
Uses
The fruit of the second species, the true name of which is binucaw, is acid and edible. The fruit and the trunk of both species, when cut, exude a gum-resin very much like gamboge which is obtained from the G. morella or G. pedicellata, Desr. These gum-resins, however, seem to be much inferior to gamboge; they contain an essential oil which does not exist in the latter and their color is paler.
Botanical description
The G. venulosa is a tree with leaves opposite, lanceolate, acute, entire and glabrous, the inferior surface covered with nervelets which converge at the apex. Petioles short and flattened. Flowers tetramerous. Calyx, 4 persistent sepals. Corolla, 4 petals, overlapping, fleshy, ovate, of the same color as the calyx. Stamens numerous; no filaments; anthers round and very small. Style very short and thick, stigma peltate, divided into 10 parts. Fruit globose, depressed, no well-marked ridges when ripe.
G. Cambogia differs from the foregoing in the leaves which present no nervelets on the lower surface and the fruit which presents 8 angles or rounded ridges.
Recent research
Europe PMC lists no papers since 2018 that name Garcinia venulosa.