Hopea celebica (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Hopea celebica Burck

Protologue: Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg 6: 237 (1887).

Synonyms

Hopea dolosa v. Slooten (1952).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: balau mata kucing, dama dere itam, hulo dereh (Sulawesi).

Distribution

Sulawesi (central and south-western).

Uses

The timber is traded as giam (sometimes as balau), and used for construction of houses, bridges, ships, for railway sleepers, telegraph poles and furniture.

Observations

A medium-sized, scaly-barked tree; twig apices, petioles, panicles and calyx outside caducous buff pubescent; leaves ovate-lanceolate, (5.5-)8-22 cm × (2.2-)2.5-8 cm, leathery, more or less lustrous, base subequal, acumen tapering, up to 1.5 cm long, margin more or less revolute, venation subscalariform, midrib distinctly elevated above, secondary veins 8-11 pairs, arched at 45-55except at base, slender but prominent beneath; 2 outer sepals long, narrowly deltoid-lanceolate, 3 inner broadly ovate, distinctly acuminate, stamens 15, in 3 subequal verticils, ovary and stylopodium stoutly pyriform, stylopodium punctate, style short but distinct; mature fruits unknown. H. celebica is locally common in semi-evergreen forest up to 500 m altitude. The density of the wood is 890-1260 kg/m³at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

258, 318, 555, 748.