Bengkinang / Bengkinang (Elaeocarpus glaber Bl.)
Synonym
Elaeocarpus Hosei Merr.
Local names in Kalimantan: Bangkinang, Bengkinang, Bengkining Forest, Kemurik, Pabom, Surugam, Tamang
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae (Plants)
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta (vascular plants)
Super Division: Spermatophyta (Produces seeds)
Division: Magnoliophyta (Flowering plants)
Class: Magnoliopsida (dicots)
Sub Class: Dilleniidae
Order: Malvales
Family: Elaeocarpaceae
Genus: Elaeocarpus
Species: Elaeocarpus glaber Bl.
Information
Lower tree canopy, up to 30 m high with a DBH of 35 cm. Stipules are the initial storehouse. Leaves oppositely arranged, simple, pinnate veins, glabrous, long petioles, leaf margins serrated usually Domatia (hairy depressions) in leaf axils secondary veins. Flowers about 7 mm long, yellow, white petals with fringed edges, arranged in clusters. Fruit about 30 mm drupe, long orange-red, fleshy.
Ecology
Mostly in open places along rivers and in secondary forest. Usually, in rivers or in marshy areas with sandy loam soils, but also on limestone.
Height : Up to 1000 m. above sea level
Spread
Peninsular Malaya, Sumatra, Java, Lesser Sundas, Borneo (Sarawak, Sabah, West, Central and East Kalimantan), Sulawesi.
Use
The fruit is eaten and sometimes sold at local markets.
Bangkinang is shaped exactly like melinjo which is still a family of Gnetaceae plants that live in tropical forests. When unripe, bangkinang fruit is green, while when it is ripe, the color is deep red. This Bangkinang has black seeds, the Dayak people usually eat the flesh and the red skin. In contrast to melinjo which can be peeled, the skin of the bangkinang fruit is fused with the flesh.
The flesh of this bangkinan fruit is yellow, when eaten it looks like sand. When cooked, the taste is sour and sweet, mixed on the tongue, whereas if it is green or raw, it tastes brown, even though the color of the meat is the same as that of cooked bangkinang.
In the 80s, this unique fruit with yellow flesh was still widely found in the jungles of Borneo, and there were even many people who sold it in bundles.
But along with the increasing destruction of Kalimantan’s forests, this fruit is threatened with extinction. It is even reported that people living in urban areas in Kalimantan do not know and have never tasted this delicacy.
If it is ripe, the bangkinang fruit will taste sweet and sour, but if it is still not perfectly ripe, the taste will be very astringent.