Dear all,

With regard the interest in local tree, each time I go to forested area, I often open the eyes for spotting the big trees which potentially as the mother trees. On October 14, 2014, I went to Berjaya Hill (Bukit Tinggi). Along the road towards Berjaya Hill I asked to make few stops to identify few big trees on the road side. One of them is Scaphium macropodum which is heavily fruiting.

Fruit with big bractea of Scaphium macropodum


Fruits on the tree of Scaphium macropodum

Scaphium macropodum is a species of Sterculaiceae. The family characters can be recognized from the long petiole of leaf where the both ends are swollen.There are two shape of leaves: palmated when the plant is young and sagittate when the plant is mature.

Young plant of Scaphium marcopodum showing two shape of leaves: palmated and sagittate

In local name, Scaphium macropodum is called Kembang Semangkuk. How? When the fruit is soaked in a mangkuk, the jelly form of fruit flesh will blossom to fulfill the mangkuk due to water absorption. In Malaysia and Singapore, kembang semangkuk is one of the main ingredient to make air mata kucing or cheng tng respectively. In Indonesia, jely form of kembang semangkuk is commonly drunk to relief the fever and stomach discomfort.

Blossom fruit of Scaphium macropodum