Aglaia spectabilis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Aglaia spectabilis (Miq.) Jain & Bennet

Protologue: Indian Journ. Forestry 9: 271 (1987).

Synonyms

Amoora gigantea Pierre (1886), Amoora ridleyi King (1895), Aglaia gigantea (Pierre) Pellegrin (1911), Aglaia ridleyi (King) Pannell (1982).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: mokken (Biak, Irian Jaya)
• Malaysia: bekak, surian batu (Peninsular), lantupak (Dusun, Sabah)
• Laos: nỗk kỗk
• Thailand: tasua-bailek (Chon Buri)
• Vietnam: gội, gội nep, gội nui.

Distribution

From north-eastern India through Indo-China towards Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, Sumba, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and northern Australia (Cape York).

Uses

The wood is used e.g. for house building, planking, and the manufacturing of rifle butts.

Observations

A medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 40 m tall, bole branchless for up to 18 m, up to 150 cm in diameter, buttresses up to 4 m high, bark surface shaggily flaky, greyish-white, pale yellowish-brown or brown, inner bark pink, reddish-orange or brown; leaflets (3-)11-21, subopposite, with 9-19 pairs of secondary veins, above rugulose and sometimes pitted, glabrous, below pitted and sparsely to densely covered with pale brown or reddish-brown stellate hairs and scales, sometimes interspersed with few darker peltate scales having a fimbriate margin, indumentum most dense on the veins; flowers 3-merous, anthers (5-)6(-10), style-head ellipsoid with 3 apical lobes and 6 longitudinal ridges; fruit dehiscent, 3(-4)-locular. A. spectabilis is locally common and occurs in primary and secondary rain forest, gallery forest, coastal riverine forest or deciduous forest dominated by vines, on sandy to clayey or coral soils, from sea-level up to 700 m altitude. The wood is reported to be of excellent quality and has a density of 610-790 kg/m³at 12% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

78, 86, 116, 140, 465, 481, 494, 526, 574, 676, 705, 734.