Hopea andersonii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Hopea andersonii P. Ashton

Protologue: Gard. Bull. Sing. 22: 272, pl. 17 (1968).

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: luis somit (Sarawak).

Distribution

Sabah, Sarawak and south-eastern Kalimantan.

Uses

The timber is used as giam, e.g. for poles and small beams in industries.

Observations

• A medium-sized to fairly large tree of up to 40 m tall, bole frequently twisted and crooked, often branching low, with a diameter of up to 80 cm and prominent but rather narrow buttresses of up to 2 m tall and 80 cm long, bark surface chocolate-brown (subsp. andersonii) or coppery (subsp. basalticola P. Ashton), inner bark thick, pale pink-brown to cream-brown, sapwood yellow, heartwood dark chocolate-brown; twigs glabrous.
• Leaves lanceolate-falcate to elliptical, 5-14 cm × 2-6 cm, leathery, base distinctly unequal, acumen slender, frequently falcate, up to 2 cm long, venation scalariform, midrib not or slightly raised above, secondary veins 9-12 pairs, arched at 65-75°, not prominently raised.
• Stamens 15, in 3 unequal verticils, ovary and stylopodium cylindrical, very slightly constricted, style short.
• 2 longer fruit calyx lobes up to 6 cm × 2 cm, obtuse, 3 shorter ones up to 4 mm × 3 mm, obtuse, saccate.

H. andersonii is common on the lower slopes of limestone hills (subsp. andersonii) or in mixed dipterocarp forest on rich clay soils, especially on basic volcanic rocks (subsp. basalticola) up to 400 m altitude. The density of the wood is 895-1000 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

31, 258, 514, 748.

Main genus page

• Hopea (giam)

Authors

• K.M. Kochummen (selection of species),
• F.T. Frietema (selection of species)