Shorea falciferoides (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Shorea falciferoides Foxw.

Protologue: Philipp. Journ. Sc., Bot. 13: 189 (1918).

Synonyms

• Shorea gisok Foxw. (1938),
• Shorea glaucescens Meijer (1963),
• Shorea balangeran S. Vidal (1885) non (Korth.) Burck.

Vernacular names

• Brunei: selangan batu daun nipis
• Malaysia: selangan batu laut (Sabah)
• Philippines: pamayauasan, yakal yamban, yakal gisok (Tagalog).

Distribution

The Philippines and Borneo.

Uses

The timber is used as balau.

Observations

• A very large tree up to 60 m tall with bole of up to 180 cm in diameter and prominent buttresses up to 3 m high.
• Leaves broadly ovate or ovate-falcate, thin, 10-18 cm × 4.5-8 cm, with a subequal base and 9-12 pairs of secondary veins, lower surface cream-brown.
• Petals narrow, stamens c. 45, with glabrous filaments.
• Fruit calyx lobes unequal, larger three up to 9.5 cm × 2.2 cm.

S. falciferoides occurs usually scattered on clay spurs, ridges and hillsides on clay-rich soils in mixed dipterocarp forest, up to 1000 m altitude. The wood has a density of 835-950 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

30, 100, 175, 258, 474, 748.

Main genus page

• Shorea (balau)

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef (selection of species)