Palaquium rostratum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Palaquium rostratum (Miq.) Burck

Protologue: Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg 5: 39 (1886).

• Palaquium bancanum Burck (1886),
• Croixia rostrata (Miq.) Baehni (1965).

• Indonesia: balam bakulo, nyatoh terong (Sumatra), nagasari (Java)
• Malaysia: nyatoh sidang (Peninsular).

Southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi and the Moluccas.

The timber is used as nyatoh for indoor construction, flooring, furniture and implements; sometimes also for making boats. The fruits are edible, and the seeds yield a fat suitable for cooking.

• A very large tree up to 60 m tall, with columnar bole up to 120(-210) cm in diameter and large plank buttresses.
• Leaves more or less clustered at tip of twigs, obovate, spatulate or sometimes elliptical, with reticulate tertiary venation, often with tertiary veins parallel to secondary ones, glabrous on both sides.
• Flowers in 1-5-flowered clusters, borne on short pedicels 0.5-3(-12) mm long, yellowish or greenish-white to slightly brownish.
• Fruit oblong or ellipsoid, 2-3.5 cm long, glabrous and green.

P. rostratum usually grows in primary forest at low altitudes, sometimes up to 1500 m, often in swampy forests. It is common in several areas, e.g. in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo and is one of the most important producers of nyatoh. The timber is reddish-brown with a density of 480-760 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content and is easy to work. The bark yields scanty latex. The fat in the seed tastes bitter.

35, 36, 89, 100, 102, 190, 318, 481, 581, 743, 779, 792.

• Palaquium (Timbers)

• R.H.M.J. Lemmens (selection of species)