English: Java brucea.
Region: east Asia, southern China, Indian subcontinent, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia.
Habitat: prefers open localities, light secondary forest and thickets, forest edges, ridges; in sunny places on sandy dunes and on limestone; in per-humid and seasonal conditions; from sea-level up to 900 metres; prefers a well-drained soil, full sun or partial shade.
Content: quassinoids; seeds contain copious, terribly bitter oil.
Use: fruits, seeds, roots, bark in local and Chinese traditional medicine; insecticide.
BotanyShrub or small tree; bitter; to 5, 10 metres tall; grows rapidly; lives short, only a few years.
Stem: soft-haired twigs.
Leaves: soft-haired; compound with 7 to 9, ovate to ovate to lanceolate leaflets with serrate margins; leaflet are 20 to 40 cm long, pointed at the apex; covered with fine hairs, most prominent at the veins and on the undersides of the leaves.
Inflorescence: panicles.
Flowers: tiny, ± 2 mm in diameter; greenish white to greenish red or purple; anthers are red; monoecious; flowering early, throughout the year.
Fruit: drupe; up to 0.5 cm long; black-gray when ripe; wrinkled when dry.
Seed: whitish yellow; covered with an oily membrane.