Shorea palembanica (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Shorea palembanica Miq.

Protologue: Fl. Ind. Bat., Suppl.: 487 (1861).

Synonyms

• Shorea aptera Burck (1887),
• Shorea brachyptera Heim (1891).

Vernacular names

• Brunei: engkabang asu
• Indonesia: tengkawang majau (general), melebekan (Java, southern Sumatra), melebekan rawang bunga (southern Sumatra)
• Malaysia: engkabang asu (Sarawak), meranti tengkawang ayer, merpak (Peninsular).

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo.

Uses

The timber is used as light or dark red meranti. The large fruits are an important source of illipe nuts although they are of inferior quality.

Observations

• A small to very large tree up to 60 m tall with bole often of poor shape, up to 125 cm in diameter, buttresses prominent.
• Leaves ovate to oblong, papery, 8-25 cm × 4-10 cm, with 12-16 pairs of secondary veins.
• Stamens 15, anthers broadly ellipsoid, with long, slender appendages, stylopodium absent.
• Fruit calyx lobes subequal, up to 5 cm × 0.7 cm.

S. palembanica is locally abundant along river banks, where the trees overhang the river, and in freshwater swamps at low altitude. The density of the wood is 365-755 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

89, 258, 514, 677, 748.

Main genus page

• Shorea (red meranti)

Authors

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