Cinnamomum iners

Cinnamomum iners

Synonyms

Cinnamomum aromaticum Zoll.

Cinnamomum curtisii Lukman.

Cinnamomum gracile Miq.

Cinnamomum griffithii Meisn.

Cinnamomum iners var. angustifolium Ridl.

Cinnamomum manillarum de Lukmanoff

Cinnamomum pseudosintok Miq.

Cinnamomum rauwolfii Blume

Cinnamomum reinwardtii Miq.

Laurus caryophyllata Reinw. ex Meisn.

Laurus iners Reinw. ex Nees

Laurus malabathrica Roxb.

Laurus malabathrum Wall.

Laurus malabatrum Lam.

Persea nitida Spreng.

Common name

Borneo: Keningau, Mandiapa, Medang.

English: Wild cinnamon.

Origin

From India and Indochina into Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Philippines.

Ecology

In undisturbed to disturbed mixed dipterocarp and sub-montane forests or in open sites, up to 1800 m altitude. Mostly on hillsides and along rivers. The waxy, rancid smell produced by the flowers attract hoverflies, small beetles and other small insects, which are potential pollinators for the plant. Its seeds are dispersed by birds, squirrels and bats. Its leaves are the common food source of caterpillars of the Common Mime (Chilasa clytia clytia) and the Common Bluebottle (Graphium sarpdedon luctatius).

Description

Tree or small tree, 4-16 m tall, c. 39 cm diameter. Bark smooth; inner bark yellowish. Twigs stout or slender, terete, 2-3 mm diameter, apically terete to subangular, drying dark brown to black. Terminal buds not perulate, conical, 2-4 mm long, densely covered with straight appressed hairs. Leaves opposite to subopposite, drying pale green, trinerved, coriaceous, shiny and hairy above, hairy below, the hairs sparsely distributed, minute, short (to c. 0.2 mm), appressed and straight; blade not bullate, without domatia, ovate, oblong-elliptic to lanceolate, 8-12 by 4-7 cm, base rounded to cuneate, apex acute, tip often gnawed; midrib smoothly raised on both sides, to 1 mm broad; lateral veins raised on both sides, extending to the leaf tip; major intercostal veins raised, slender, subscalariform, 2-5 mm apart; minor intercostal veins faint, reticulate; petiole stout, subterete, shallowly grooved above, glabrescent, c. 0.5 cm long, 1-2 mm diameter.

 Inflorescences axillary or subterminal, slender, drying blackish, paniculate-cymose with up to third order branching, up to 16 cm long; rachis angular, 1-2 mm broad, densely to sparsely covered with short straight appressed hairs; bracts caducous. Flowers hairy, drying silky and greyish; pedicels slender, 3-5 mm long; hypanthium 1-3 mm high; perianth lobes elliptic, c. 1.5-2.5 mm long, appressed pilose on both side; fertile stamen 1.5-2.5 mm long, anthers oblong ovate with truncate or obtuse tip; that of first and second whorl 4-locular, of third whorl 2- to 4-locular; filament 2/3-3/4 the length of stamen; glands stalked on each side at the lower half of filaments; staminodes 1-1.5 mm long, apex hastate; ovary subglobose, 1-1.5 mm long, stigma trilobed.

Infructescences 8-12 cm long. Fruits ellipsoid or obovoid with pointed tip, c. 10 by 8 mm; cupule inconspicuous, very shallow, 1 mm high, 2 mm diameter, appressed hairy; perianth lobes persistent, elliptic or ovate, 2 by 1-2 mm; pedicel slender, 3-4 mm long, c. 1 mm diameter, minute-appressed hairy.

Uses

The timber is insect resistent and used for house building and cabinet work. The bark yields an inferior grade of cinnamon but oil distilled from it and from the leaves can be used for flavouring and for incense sticks. Medicinally various plant parts are used for child birth complications, fever, rheumatic poultice, and to relieve flatuence, intestinal and urinary complications. Leaves are used for preparing sweet drinking water in rural areas. Sometimes planted as an ornamental. In cases of poisoning by the latex from Antiaris toxicaria (Poison Arrow Tree or Ipoh Tree), the leaves can also be used to produce an antidote. A decoction of the boiled roots is also administered to women post-labour.