Dipterocarpus kerrii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Dipterocarpus kerrii King

Protologue: Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 62(2): 93 (1893).

Synonyms

• Dipterocarpus obconicus Foxw. (1913),
• Dipterocarpus cuneatus Foxw. (1918),
• Dipterocarpus perturbinatus Foxw. (1918).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: lagan beras (northern Sumatra)
• Malaysia: keruing gondol (Peninsular, Sabah), keruing chair, damar minyak (Peninsular)
• Philippines: malapanau (general), panalsalan (Bikol)
• Burma: see-bin
• Thailand: yang-manmu, yang-man-khon, yang-wat (peninsular).

Distribution

The Andaman Islands, peninsular Burma, peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, northern Sumatra, Sabah and the Philippines.

Uses

The timber is used as keruing. D. kerrii is regarded as the most important source of keruing wood-oil known as "damar minyak" or "gurjun balsam".

Observations

• A medium-sized to fairly large tree of up to 40 m tall, bole tall, branchless for up to 25 m, up to 150 cm in diameter, buttresses blunt, bark surface non-fissured, dark grey to yellowish-grey, flaky, outer bark thin, grey, inner bark pinkish-brown, brittle, sapwood pale ochre; buds lanceolate-falcate, glabrous.
• Leaves broadly elliptical, 8-13 cm × 3.3-7 cm, base cuneate, acumen up to 5 mm long, secondary veins (7-)9-11 pairs, ascending, glabrous, petiole 2-3 cm long, stipules linear-lanceolate, subacute, inside silky tomentose.
• Stamens about 30.
• Fruit calyx tube globose to subturbinate, smooth, 2 larger fruit calyx lobes up to 14 cm × 3 cm, 3 shorter ones up to 1 cm × 1 cm.

D. kerrii is locally common in semi-evergreen and evergreen lowland dipterocarp forest and occurs near the coast or less frequently inland on flat land or hills up to 400 m altitude. The density of the wood is 555-875 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

102, 140, 175, 253, 258, 264, 270, 297, 417, 476, 497, 514, 580, 628, 677, 737, 748, 799.