Sindora siamensis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Sindora siamensis Teijsm. ex Miq.

Protologue: Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat. 3: 86 (1871).

• Sindora cochinchinensis Baillon (1867).

• Malaysia: sepetir mempelas (Peninsular)
• Cambodia: krâkâh'
• Laos: têtê 'hoho
• Thailand: makha-tae (general), makha-nam (central), makha-yum (northern)
• Vietnam: gụ mật, gõ mật.

Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and northern Peninsular Malaysia.

The timber is used for planking, poles, joinery, furniture and construction work and also as firewood. The bark is used for partition walls in Thailand, the wood-oil for caulking boats, and the aril of the seed is sometimes used as a substitute for betel.

• Usually a small tree, rarely over 15 m tall with bole over 40 cm in diameter, but recorded to sometimes reach 35 m tall with straight, cylindrical bole branchless for at least 12 m.
• Leaves with 6-8 leaflets, leaflets 4-15 cm × 3-8.5 cm, leathery and sparsely puberulous above, more densely puberulous beneath.
• Flowers with 4.5-9 mm long calyx lobes pubescent except for the margin and spiny towards the apex.
• Pod usually irregularly ovate, up to 8.5(-10) cm long, armed with numerous stout spines.

S. siamensis is often a dominating species in dry dipterocarp forest up to 500 m altitude. Two varieties are distinguished: var. siamensis and var. maritima (Pierre) K. Larsen & S.S. Larsen, the latter being less common and having much less spiny pods. The density of the wood is about 880 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

102, 186, 190, 235, 578, 626, 779.

• Sindora (Timbers)

• M.S.M. Sosef (selection of species)