Palaquium merrillii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Palaquium merrillii Dubard

Protologue: Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 15: 381 (1909).

Vernacular names

• Philippines: dulitan (Tagalog), mikat (Ibanag), bulau-bulau (Panay Bisaya).

Distribution

The Philippines.

Uses

The timber is used as nyatoh for furniture, cabinet work and cigar boxes.

Observations

• A medium-sized tree up to 25 m tall.
• Leaves evenly distributed or loosely clustered at tip of twigs, obovate to oblanceolate, with rather distinct, transverse tertiary veins, glabrous on both sides when mature.
• Flowers in 2-4-flowered clusters, borne on 5-12 mm long pedicels (in fruit up to 15 mm).
• Fruit ellipsoid, c. 2 cm long, glabrous.

P. merrillii grows in primary forests at low and medium altitudes. The timber is traded as "red nato" together with other Palaquium species, and is pale brown to reddish-brown and resembles the timber of P. barnesii.

Selected sources

480, 484, 486, 743.

Main genus page

• Palaquium (Timbers)

Authors

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