Heritiera javanica (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Heritiera javanica (Blume) Kosterm.

Protologue: Penerb. Madj. Ilmu Peng. Indon. 1: 58 (1959). Also in: Reinwardtia 4: 521 (1959).

Synonyms

• Tarrietia javanica Blume (1825).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia, Malaysia: mengkulang jari
• Laos: hao
• Thailand: chum-phraek (Trat), thong suk (Trang), loma (Ranong, Surat Thani).

Distribution

Indo-China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, northern Sulawesi and the Philippines.

Uses

The timber is used as mengkulang.

Observations

• A large tree, up to 45 m tall with columnar bole 20-25 m long and up to 100(-130) cm in diameter, buttresses thin.
• Leaves palmately compound with (3-)5-7 leaflets, glabrescent but with characteristic tufts of hairs in the axils of secondary veins, petioles 5-10 cm long.
• Panicles much-branched, up to 13 cm long.
• Fruit with large wing, glabrous.

H. javanica is one of the major species for mengkulang but less important than H. simplicifolia. It is widely distributed in lowland forest, mainly on ridges up to 600 m, and is locally common, e.g. in the Philippines (Mindanao, Basilan), where the species is co-dominant with dipterocarp species. The wood is slightly less heavy, less hard and less strong than that of H. simplicifolia. The density of the wood is 635-850 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

10, 35, 100, 175, 190, 274, 359, 378, 443, 447, 461, 484, 486, 579, 779, 795.

Main genus page

• Heritiera

Authors

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