Memecylon lilacinum is a tree species in the Melastomataceaefamily. It is usually an understorey species in closed forests. It is native to an area of tropical Asia, from Jawa to Philippines to Vietnam and the Andaman Islands and Myanmar. It is a food plant for the macaque Macaca facsicularis and a bee in the Megachilidae family.
Description
A perennial tree, growing 6-7m tall, sometimes to 25m.[2][3][4]
It flowers in July and has fruit from October to May in Cambodia.
In the Khao Yai National Park, central Thailand, near Bangkok, the species is one of the most abundant in the Mo Singto study area forest.[6]
The study area is primarily for the observation of white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar).
The Bokor Plateau at Preah Monivong National Park, southeastern Cambodia has a rare and significant flora of stunted forest and heathland, first studied by the famous Cambodian botanist Pauline Dy Phon.[7]
This taxa, M. lilacinum occurs as a stunted tree in montane forest at 928m elevation.
The tree is a moderately abundant understorey plant in the mixed evergreen and deciduous, seasonal, hardwood forest along the Mekong river in Kratie and Steung Treng Provinces, northeastern Cambodia.[3]
It grows on soils there derived from metamorphic sandstone bedrock, at 25-30m altitude.
Macaca fascicularis ("crab-eating macaque"), has been observed eating the flowers and leaves of the plant, amongst hundreds of other plant species, in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore.[8]
