Sindora wallichii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Sindora wallichii Graham ex Bentham

Protologue: Hooker's Icon. Pl.: tab. 1018 (1867).

Synonyms

Sindora intermedia (J.G. Baker) Prain ex King (1897).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: tamparhantu, kampas hantu (Sumatra), mahasindut (Kalimantan)
• Malaysia: sepetir daun tebal (Peninsular).

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra and Borneo.

Uses

The timber is used as sepetir, e.g. in house building. The pods are used medicinally after childbirth.

Observations

A large tree up to 45 m tall with a straight, cylindrical bole at least 65 cm in diameter; leaves with 6-8 leaflets, leaflets 4-10.5 cm × 2.5-5 cm, leathery and glabrous or thinly velvety pubescent beneath; flowers with up to 9.5 mm long, densely pubescent calyx lobes, having long slender spines near the apex; pod ovate, broadly elliptical to circular, up to 9.5 cm long, with many slender, stout spines having a swollen base. S. wallichii is closely related to S. echinocalyx . It occurs frequently in hill dipterocarp forest up to 300 m altitude in Peninsular Malaysia, more scattered in primary forest below 100 m altitude on sandy or clayey soils in eastern Sumatra, and is apparently rather rare in Borneo. The density of the timber is 530-790 kg/m³at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

100, 102, 146, 186, 190, 318, 325, 779.

Authors

E.N. Sambas (general part), P.B. Laming (properties), Ani Sulaiman (wood anatomy) & M.S.M. Sosef (selection of species)