Shorea parvifolia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Shorea parvifolia Dyer

Protologue: Fl. Brit. India 1: 305 (1874).

Synonyms

• Shorea scutulata King (1893),
• Shorea gentilis Parijs (1933).

Vernacular names

• Brunei: meranti sarang punai
• Indonesia: meranti sarang punai (general), abang gunung (East Kalimantan), kontoi burung (West Kalimantan)
• Malaysia: meranti sarang punai (general), meranti samak (Sarawak), seraya punai (Sabah)
• Thailand: saya-luang (peninsular).

Distribution

Peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo.

Uses

The timber is the main source of light red meranti in South-East Asia.

Observations

• A very large tree up to 65 m tall with bole branchless for 18-30 m and up to 190 cm in diameter, buttresses up to 4 m high.
• Leaves broadly ovate, thinly leathery, 5-9(-11) cm × 2.5-5(-6) cm, with 10-13 pairs of secondary veins not prominent beneath, lower surface sparsely pale brown pubescent.
• Stamens 15, anthers subglobose with short appendages, stylopodium ovoid to conical.
• Larger fruit calyx lobes up to 9 cm × 1.5 cm.

S. parvifolia is possibly the commonest dipterocarp species in Malesia and occurs on a variety of usually well-drained clay soils up to 800 m altitude. The density of the wood is very variable and ranges between 290 kg/m³ and 835 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

30, 89, 100, 102, 125, 137, 253, 258, 297, 318, 357, 417, 461, 469, 476, 514, 628, 677, 748.

Main genus page

• Shorea (red meranti)

Authors

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