Hopea myrtifolia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Hopea myrtifolia Miq.

Protologue: Fl. Ind. Bat., Suppl. 1 (Prodr. Fl. Sum.): 493, 192 (1861).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: luis tunjang (East Kalimantan), mahanamun (South Kalimantan), lampengwea (south-eastern Kalimantan)
• Malaysia: merawan mata kucing beludu, merawan jangkang (Peninsular).

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, southern Sumatra, and south-eastern and western Borneo.

Uses

The timber is used as merawan. The tree produces a clear dammar, apparently of good quality.

Observations

• A medium-sized, sometimes large tree, bole slightly fluted, with a diameter of up to 80 cm, having stilt roots and thin buttresses, commonly with small exudations of clear dammar, bark surface smooth, with a green layer beneath, inner bark pink-brown, grading to almost colourless at the cambium, sapwood pale yellow; young parts more or less persistently tawny puberulent.
• Leaves lanceolate, (4.5-)6-12 cm × 2-5 cm, leathery, base broadly cuneate, subequal, acumen up to 1.8 cm long, prominent, venation dryobalanoid, midrib raised above, secondary veins about 13 pairs, with many shorter veins in between, slender but prominent beneath.
• Stamens 15, ovary and stylopodium narrowly subcylindrical, style shorter than stylopodium and ovary.
• 2 longer fruit calyx lobes up to 5.5 cm × 1.2 cm, tapering to base, 3 shorter ones up to 4 mm × 3 mm, ovate, saccate, thickened.

H. myrtifolia occurs on low-lying, flat, but well-drained land with deep fertile soil. The density of the wood is 640-925 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

76, 258, 514, 556, 677, 748.

Main genus page

• Hopea (merawan)

Authors

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