Hopea basilanica (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Hopea basilanica Foxw.

Protologue: Philipp. Journ. Sc., Bot. 6: 260, pl. 42 (1911).

Vernacular names

• Philippines: basilan yakal (general), dalindingan (Sulu), yakal (Sulu, Yakan).

Distribution

The Philippines (Basilan, Mindanao).

Uses

The timber is used as giam for construction works requiring strong and durable wood, such as bridges and wharves.

Observations

• A large tree up to 60 m tall, with bole up to 65 cm in diameter, bark surface flaky, grey-brown to brown, inner bark yellowish when fresh and turning brown when dry, sapwood slightly paler than the yellowish to light brown heartwood; young twigs, petioles and panicles greyish sericeous.
• Leaves oblanceolate or elliptical, (7.5-)10-14 cm × (2.5-)3.5-5 cm, thickly leathery, cuneate and unequal at base, acumen slender, up to 1.5 cm long, venation scalariform, midrib applanate above, secondary veins (9-)10-13 pairs, slender but prominent beneath, the basal pairs with axillary domatia.
• Stamens 15, in 3 unequal verticils, ovary and stylopodium together hour-glass-shaped with a distinct median constriction, style as long as ovary.
• 2 longer fruit calyx lobes up to 4.5 cm × 1.5 cm, obtuse, 3 shorter ones up to 7 mm × 5 mm, acute.

H. basilanica occurs in primary forest on undulating land and low hills below 70 m altitude; it is not common. The density of the wood is about 920 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

175, 258, 579, 599, 748.

Main genus page

• Hopea (giam)

Authors

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