Eden

Penang Botanic Gardens Plant Collection

Nephelium lappaceum L. (SAPINDACEAE)

Posted at — Nov 13, 2019
Rambutan

Description

Medium-sized evergreen tree to 27 m tall with rounded bushy crown. Leaves pinnately compound without terminal leaflets, leaflets 1-6 pairs, 5-28 cm long, ovate to obovate. Flowers small, 1-2.1 mm long, petals almost absent, clustered in branched terminal and axillary branches. Fruits c. 6 cm long, ellipsoid to subglobular, covered with 0.5-2 cm long soft spiny appendages, red to yellow when ripe, seeds covered with translucent sarcotesta.


Ecology

Lowland forest.

Distribution

Widely cultivated for its edible fruits. Thailand, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Java and Philippines.

Uses

Fruits are edible and often planted in fruit orchards and home gardens.