Shorea ovalis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Shorea ovalis (Korth.) Blume

Protologue: Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Bat. 2: 33 (1852).

Synonyms

• Shorea eximia (Miq.) R. Scheffer (1870),
• Shorea sericea Dyer (1874),
• Shorea rigida Brandis (1895).

Vernacular names

• Brunei: meranti kepong, meranti luang
• Indonesia: meranti kelungkung (general), abang gunung putih (East Kalimantan), meranti sepang (southern Sumatra)
• Malaysia: kepong labu (Peninsular), meranti kepong (Peninsular, Sarawak), seraya kepong (Sabah).

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo.

Uses

The timber is used as light red meranti. The bark is used in local houses for walls and floors and for temporary shelters.

Observations

• A medium-sized to very large tree up to 60 m tall with bole branchless for 18-27 m and up to 125 cm in diameter, buttresses up to 1.5 m high.
• Leaves broadly oblong to narrowly ovate, 10-22 cm × (2-)3-10 cm, with (20-)22-25 pairs of secondary veins, lower surface scabrid.
• Stamens 50-70, anthers broadly elliptical to oblong, with short, rudimentary appendages, stylopodium narrowly conical.
• Larger fruit calyx lobes up to 11 cm × 1.4 cm.

S. ovalis is a variable species with 3 subspecies and occurs on moist sites in lowland mixed dipterocarp forest up to 500 m altitude. The density of the wood is 320-860 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

30, 89, 100, 102, 124, 253, 258, 318, 357, 461, 476, 514, 525, 579, 628, 645, 748.

Main genus page

• Shorea (red meranti)

Authors

M.S.M. Sosef (selection of species)