Shorea roxburghii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Shorea roxburghii G. Don

Protologue: Gen. hist.: 813 (1831).

Synonyms

• Shorea talura Roxb. (1832),
• Shorea floribunda (Wallich) Kurz (1873),
• Shorea cochinchinensis Pierre (1889).

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: meranti temak nipis, temak
• Burma: kaban-ywet-they, pantheya, panthitya
• Cambodia: popé:l
• Laos: khanho:m
• Thailand: phayom (general), khayom (northern), khiam (peninsular)
• Vietnam: sến cật, sến mủ, sên dỏ.

Distribution

Eastern India, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia.

Uses

The timber is used as white meranti. A low-quality resin is obtained from the tree. In Cambodia the bark is used as a masticatory in the betel-quid. The tree also produces a dye.

Observations

• A small to fairly large tree up to 40 m tall, bole up to 95 cm in diameter, buttresses absent or small.
• Leaves elliptical-oblong, thin, 7.5-19 cm × 2.5-7 cm, with 12-20 pairs of secondary veins, lower surface glabrescent, petiole 14-45 mm long.
• Stamens 15, stylopodium absent.
• Larger fruit calyx lobes up to 9 cm × 1.2 cm.

S. roxburghii is common and occurs sometimes gregarious in dry evergreen, deciduous or bamboo forest with a preference for sandy soils up to 1200 m altitude. The density of the wood is 560-790 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

102, 141, 150, 253, 258, 297, 417, 495, 499, 514, 532, 600, 601, 606, 628, 677, 706, 748.

Main genus page

• Shorea (white meranti)

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef (selection of species)