Hopea ferrea (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Hopea ferrea Lanessan

Protologue: Pl. util. colon. franç. 1: 300 (1886).

Synonyms

• Balanocarpus anomalus King (1893),
• Hopea anomala (King) Foxw. (1927).

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: malut (general), chengal laki, chengal batu (Peninsular)
• Cambodia: kôki:(r) thmâ:(r)
• Laos: chik cha:d, kh'è:n hin
• Thailand: takhian-hin, kian-sai (peninsular), takhian-nuu (eastern)
• Vietnam: săng dào, sao tía.

Distribution

Laos, Cambodia, southern Vietnam, Thailand and north-western Peninsular Malaysia.

Uses

H. ferrea is a commercially important source of giam timber, which is sometimes traded separately and called "malut". It also yields a very fragrant dammar, which is collected in Indo-China.

Observations

• A small, medium-sized or occasionally stout and fairly large tree of up to 35 m tall, bole often twisted and gnarled and with a diameter of up to 145 cm and inconspicuous buttresses, bark surface shaggy, flaking in thin scales, dark brown, inner bark dull orange-yellow tinged salmon, sapwood thin, yellow or brownish-yellow, heartwood distinctly darker, sometimes showing a brownish-red colour; plant glabrous except for densely buff puberulent inflorescences, petals and sepals, young leaves brilliant red.
• Leaves ovate, 4-10 cm × 2-5.5 cm, base broadly cuneate, or rarely obtuse, acumen slender, up to 2 cm long, venation scalariform, midrib evident above, secondary veins (6-)8(-9) pairs, arched, slender but distinctly raised beneath.
• Stamens 15, ovary together with stylopodium pear-shaped, glabrous, style short, obscure.
• 2 longer fruit calyx lobes up to 4 cm × 1 cm, broadly spatulate, obtuse, 3 shorter lobes up to 5 mm × 1 mm, lanceolate-acicular, thickened, saccate.

H. ferrea is locally abundant in evergreen forest on rocky ridges and slopes, especially on limestone but also on granite and sandstone formations. The density of the wood is 870-1170 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

102, 235, 258, 601, 628, 677, 748.

Main genus page

• Hopea (giam)

Authors

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