It is one of the 2 main tree species of the swamp forests that line the rivers and lake of Tonlé Sap region, along with Barringtonia acutangula.

[4] The swamp forests at Tonlé Sap occur as a mosaic of stands of large trees and open areas with floating aquatic vegetation, a once-common habitat along rivers in Cambodia, now largely restricted to Tonlé Sap and small areas along the Mekong.

[5] The two main trees typically grow with various woody lianas (such as Combretum trifoliatum, Breynia vitis-idaea, Tetracera sarmentosa, and Senegalia thailandica.

[6] The species is known as 'ach kânndaô ("droppings of mice", referring to the shape of the flowers)[3] or ach kândor,[7] and phtuôl,[3] ptol,[6] or phtuel[8] (Khmer, which at present [2021] still has no accepted roman transliteration).

[9] Diospyros cambodiana was first described by the French botanist Paul Henri Lecomte (1856–1934), in the Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris in 1929.