Hopea andersonii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Hopea andersonii P. Ashton

Protologue: Gard. Bull. Sing. 22: 272, pl. 17 (1968).

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: luis somit (Sarawak).

Distribution

Sabah, Sarawak and south-eastern Kalimantan.

Uses

The timber is used as giam, e.g. for poles and small beams in industries.

Observations

A medium-sized to fairly large tree of up to 40 m tall, bole frequently twisted and crooked, often branching low, with a diameter of up to 80 cm and prominent but rather narrow buttresses of up to 2 m tall and 80 cm long, bark surface chocolate-brown (subsp. andersonii ) or coppery (subsp. basalticola P. Ashton), inner bark thick, pale pink-brown to cream-brown, sapwood yellow, heartwood dark chocolate-brown; twigs glabrous; leaves lanceolate-falcate to elliptical, 5-14 cm × 2-6 cm, leathery, base distinctly unequal, acumen slender, frequently falcate, up to 2 cm long, venation scalariform, midrib not or slightly raised above, secondary veins 9-12 pairs, arched at 65-75, not prominently raised; stamens 15, in 3 unequal verticils, ovary and stylopodium cylindrical, very slightly constricted, style short; 2 longer fruit calyx lobes up to 6 cm × 2 cm, obtuse, 3 shorter ones up to 4 mm × 3 mm, obtuse, saccate. H. andersonii is common on the lower slopes of limestone hills (subsp. andersonii ) or in mixed dipterocarp forest on rich clay soils, especially on basic volcanic rocks (subsp. basalticola ) up to 400 m altitude. The density of the wood is 895-1000 kg/m³at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

31, 258, 514, 748.