Shorea polita (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Shorea polita S. Vidal

Protologue: Sinopsis 15: t. 15D (1883).

Synonyms

Shorea mindanensis Foxw.

Vernacular names

• Philippines: damlig (Tagalog), lauan-anite (Sambali), malaanonang (general).

Distribution

The Philippines.

Uses

The timber is used as white meranti. It is reported that wood extractives have a tumour-inhibiting capacity.

Observations

A medium-sized tree up to 30 m tall with bole branchless for 15-20 m and a diameter up to 120 cm, buttresses small; leaves elliptical, thinly leathery, (3.5-)6-9(-14) cm × (1.5-)4-5(-11.5) cm, with 11-13 pairs of secondary veins, lower surface pale green, petiole 1-2 cm long; stamens 21-25, stylopodium absent; larger fruit calyx lobes up to 13 cm × 2 cm. S. polita occurs in primary evergreen and semi-evergreen forest at low altitude. The wood is very difficult to saw by hand and has a density of 480-750 kg/m³at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

175, 258, 578, 579, 748.