Combretocarpus motleyi Hook. f.

A medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 40 m tall; bole usually straight (sometimes crooked and twisted), up to 100 cm in diameter, without buttresses, clustered stilt roots sometimes present, in swamps sometimes with mats of thread-like rusty brown aerial roots; bark surface irregularly and deeply fissured, fawn to greyish-brown, inner bark hard, orange-brown; crown usually irregular, with twisted branches. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, cuneate at base, rounded at apex; stipules absent. Flowers in a paniculate, axillary inflorescence, yellow, 3(-4)-merous; calyx lobes deltoid-ovate; petals linear, entire or sometimes laciniate; stamens twice the number of the petals; ovary inferior, 3(-4) locular with 2 ovules in each cell, styles 3(-4), free. Fruit dry, 1-seeded, broadly 3-winged. Seed spindle-shaped. The young leaves are conspicuously bright crimson to dark red. Combretocarpus is related to Anisophyllea. Both genera are often included in the family Rhizophoraceae. However, recent multidisciplinary research has shown that they can best be placed in a separate family Anisophylleaceae.

C. rotundatus grows on waterlogged soils of peat-swamp forest and kerangas.

C. rotundatus occurs most abundantly in secondary forest or forest with an open canopy, but there the trees are often small and of poor form. In Sarawak well-developed trees are found in peat-swamp forest associated with alan (Shorea albida Sym.).

Propagation and planting have not been practised, but as the tree coppices vigorously, regeneration of logged-over forest will pose no problem. Fallen trees usually develop adventitious shoots from the bole and these eventually develop into trees.

Boundary or barrier or support: Posts are sometimes used for live fencing.

Fuel: It is used as firewood. Timber: The wood of C. rotundatus is locally highly favoured for heavy interior construction and railway sleepers, but needs preservation for the latter purpose. It is also used for temporary construction exposed to the weather, furniture, flooring, panelling, boat construction and sliced veneer, and also for agricultural implements.