Shorea gibbosa (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Shorea gibbosa Brandis

Protologue: Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 31: 99 (1895).

Synonyms

• Hopea grisea Brandis (1895).

Vernacular names

• Brunei: lun gajah
• Indonesia: damar buah, damar buah hitam gelung (southern Sumatra), mereng-kuyung (West Kalimantan)
• Malaysia: damar hitam gajah (Peninsular), lun gajah (Sarawak), seraya kuning gajah (Sabah).

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo.

Uses

The timber is used as yellow meranti. S. gibbosa is a source for illipe nuts.

Observations

• A very large tree up to 75 m tall with bole branchless to a fair height and up to 160 cm in diameter, with large buttresses up to 5 m high, twigs silvery-brown, striate.
• Leaves ovate, 5-13 cm × 2-6 cm, papery, with 7-9 pairs of secondary veins, petiole 8-12(-16) mm long.
• Stamens 15, stylopodium indistinct.
• Larger fruit calyx lobes up to 9 cm × 2 cm.

S. gibbosa is locally common on flat or undulating land with deep clay-rich soils up to 650 m altitude. The density of the wood is 400-815 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

31, 89, 100, 253, 258, 476, 677, 748.

Main genus page

• Shorea (yellow meranti)

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef (selection of species)