Claoxylon indicum (Reinw. ex Blume) Hassk., Cat. Hort. Bot. Bogor. Alter. 235. 1844; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 411. 1887; Susila & N.P.Balakr. in Rheedea 5(2): 119, f. 2. 1995. Erythrochilus indicus Reinw. ex Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 615. 1826. Claoxylon polot sec. Merr., Interpr. Rumph. Herb. Amboin. 200. 1917; Thoth. in Indian Forester 101: 179. 1975 (non Burm.f. 1768).

Shrubs or trees, 4 - 10 m tall; branchlets hollow, puberulous; all parts greyish pubescent or tomentellous. Leaves broadly ovate to elliptic-ovate or lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate or suborbicular, cuneate, acute, truncate or subcordate at base, subentire and sinuate, crenate- dentate and irregularly glandular along margins, acute to shortly acuminate at apex, (12 -) 15 - 35 (- 45) x 8 - 15 (- 25) cm, membranous to chartaceous, glabrous or minutely pilose above, soft pubescent or stellate beneath, penninerved; lateral nerves 6 - 12 pairs; petioles 3 - 15 (- 18) cm long; stipules early caducous. Male flowers: in scattered clusters or fascicles of subsessile flowers, arranged on axillary or terminal pendulous 5 - 40 cm long racemes, densely whitish pubescent; bracts ovate-lanceolate, 1 - 1.5 mm across; pedicels 2 - 4 mm long; sepals oblong-ovate to lanceolate, 2 - 3 mm long; stamens 15 - 40, intermixed with glands and filiform 0.4 - 0.9 mm long scales, with a tuft of white villous hairs; filaments connate at base; anthers 2-loculed. Female flowers: solitary in axils of bracts on (2 -) 5 - 12 (- 15) cm long racemes; bracts ovate- lanceolate, 1 - 1.5 mm across; flowers 2 - 4 mm across; pedicels 2 - 3 mm long, articulate, elongating in fruits; sepals 3, connate at base, spathaceous, ovate-lanceolate or triangular, 2 - 3 x 1 - 2 mm; disc lobed; ovary subglobose, 1.5 - 2 mm across, 3-locular, hirsute; scales 3, attached to ovary. Fruits depressed-globose to subglobose, trigonous, 7 - 10 mm in diam., bright red, finely softly tomentose or yellowish pubescent; cocci keeled; seeds globose, 3 - 4 mm across.

Fl. Jan. - April; Fr. March - Sept.

Distrib. India: Evergreen or mixed forests, beach forests on sandy or clayey soil. Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Thailand and throughout Malesia to New Guinea.