Swintonia schwenkii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Swintonia schwenkii (Teijsm. & Binnend.) Teijsm. & Binnend. ex Hook.f.

Protologue: Fl. Brit. India 2: 26 (1876).

Synonyms

Anauxanopetalum schwenkii Teijsm. & Binnend. (1861).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: ambago (Batak, Sumatra), galagensa (Malay, Sumatra), rengas (Kalimantan)
• Malaysia: merpauh periang (Peninsular), baba chit (Iban, Sarawak), pitoh bukit (Malay, Sarawak). Burma (Myanmar): civit, taung-thayet, shitle
• Thailand: ka-yu mue-yaeng (Malay, peninsular), khan thong (Krabi, Satun), priang (Pattani).

Distribution

Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Cambodia, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra and Borneo.

Uses

S. schwenkii is an important source of merpauh.

Observations

A large tree up to 45(-53) m tall, bole up to 70(-120) cm in diameter, buttresses up to 3 m high, bark surface smooth or dippled, sometimes deeply fissured, grey-brown to reddish-brown; leaves narrowly elliptical, rarely elliptical, 7-12(-16) cm × 3-4.5(-6) cm, glabrous, without papillae on the lower surface (or very obscure), midrib sharply keeled below, petiole 3.5-6 cm long, terete throughout to only in its basal half, sometimes flat or grooved above in the apical one-third to half; calyx divided to about halfway, petals 2-3 mm long, cuneate at base, densely puberulous on both surfaces; drupe ovoid-oblong or ellipsoid, 17.5-20 mm long, enlarged petals 5.5-7 cm long. S. schwenkii grows in primary or rarely secondary lowland and hill forest, usually on leached sandy soils, in mixed dipterocarp or kerangas forest, occasionally on ultrabasic soils or limestone, up to 700 m altitude. The density of the wood is 650-810 kg/m³at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

162, 163, 206, 364, 410, 463, 465, 474, 566, 574, 576, 705.