Hopea pentanervia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Hopea pentanervia Sym. ex Wood

Protologue: Gard. Bull. Sing. 17: 495 (1960).

Vernacular names

• Brunei: mang (Malay), chengal paya (Iban)
• Malaysia: selangan lima urat, selangan batu paya (Sabah), mang besi (Sarawak).

Distribution

North-western Borneo.

Uses

The wood is frequently used for hewn posts in heavy construction and is also popular for the keels of boats.

Observations

• A medium-sized to fairly large tree of up to 35 m tall, bole twisted, frequently crooked and ribbed, with a diameter of up to 125 cm and distinct buttresses, bark surface dark red-brown, inner bark pale brown, paler at the bright yellow cambium, sapwood pale straw-coloured, heartwood red-brown, honey-coloured when fresh; young parts puberulent, glabrescent.
• Leaves ovate, 5-10 cm × 3.2-5 cm, leathery, base obtuse or broadly cuneate, acumen up to 1.5 cm long, margin slightly revolute, venation scalariform, midrib applanate above, secondary veins about 5 pairs, ascending at 45-55° but strongly curved.
• Stamens 15, small, well spaced round the ovary, ovary and stylopodium cylindrical, truncate, glabrous, style short, slender.
• 2 longer fruit calyx lobes up to 5 cm × 1.2 cm, spatulate, chartaceous, obtuse, 3 shorter ones up to 4 mm × 3 mm, ovate, acute, saccate.

H. pentanervia occurs in mixed peat-swamp forest over sand, on podzols on cuestas, plateaux and terraces, near present or Pleistocene coastlines; on ultrabasic rocks in eastern Sabah. The density of the wood is 1090-1215 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

30, 89, 100, 258, 476, 748.

Main genus page

• Hopea (giam)

Authors

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