Palaquium ridleyi (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Palaquium ridleyi King & Gamble

Protologue: Journ. As. Soc. Beng. pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 74(2): 196 (1905).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: balam rambai, balam seminai (Sumatra), kandole (Sulawesi)
• Malaysia: bitis paya, mayang (Peninsular).

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Borneo, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, the Philippines (Luzon, rare) and Irian Jaya; possibly also in Vietnam.

Uses

The timber is used as bitis. It is used for beams and posts.

Observations

• A medium-sized to large tree up to 40 m tall, with columnar, often fluted bole usually up to 50 cm in diameter and buttresses.
• Leaves more or less clustered at tip of twigs, obovate to elliptical, with very fine, transverse tertiary venation, glabrous on both sides.
• Flowers in 5-18-flowered clusters, often along a leafless terminal shoot, borne on slender 3-7(-14) mm long pedicels, greenish-white or greenish-yellow.
• Fruit obovoid, ellipsoid or globose, 1-1.5 cm long, glabrous.

P. ridleyi usually occurs scattered in swamp forests, sometimes on hills up to 800 m altitude. The timber is purplish or reddish-brown, heavy (875-1120 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content) and very hard. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

100, 102, 190, 235, 318, 578, 581, 699, 743, 779.

Main genus page

• Palaquium (Timbers)

Authors

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