Garcinia hanburyi

Cultivation Details

A plant of the moist, lowland tropics, where it grows at elevations up to 800 metres^[1]. It is found in areas where the annual rainfall is up to 2,500 mm^[1]. Trees are not usually tapped before they are 20 years old, when the trunk has attained a diameter of about 15 cm^{[1, 2]}. A spiral incision is made in the trunk just below the lowest branches, and the exudate is collected in a bamboo container^[1]. About every 3 days the content is poured into smaller bamboo stem parts (about 75 cm long), in which the gum-resin coagulates in about a month or longer^[1]. The bamboo containers are then cracked and the gamboge is removed in cylindrical sticks (pipe gamboge), which is the usual form in trade. Sometimes gamboge is moulded and pressed into cakes^[1]. The gum-resin obtained from this plant is often called Siamese gamboge to distinguish it from the similar product from the bark of Garcinia morella, which is called Indian gamboge^[1]. The species are closely related, and this species has been treated in the past as a variety of Garcinia morella^[1].