3583

5(1): Timber trees; Major commercial timbers

Hopea ferrea Lanessan

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Hopea (giam) in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Pl. util. colon. franç. 1: 300 (1886).

Balanocarpus anomalus King (1893), Hopea anomala (King) Foxw. (1927).

Malaysia: malut (general), chengal laki, chengal batu (Peninsular). Cambodia: kôki:(r) thmâ:(r). Laos: chik cha:d, kh'è:n hin. Thailand: takhian-hin, kian-sai (peninsular), takhian-nuu (eastern). Vietnam: s[aw]ng d[af]o, sao t[is]a.

Laos, Cambodia, southern Vietnam, Thailand and north-western Peninsular Malaysia.

Hopea ferrea is a commercially important source of giam timber, which is sometimes traded separately and called 'malut'. It also yields a very fragrant dammar, which is collected in Indo-China.

A small, medium-sized or occasionally stout and fairly large tree of up to 35 m tall, bole often twisted and gnarled and with a diameter of up to 145 cm and inconspicuous buttresses, bark surface shaggy, flaking in thin scales, dark brown, inner bark dull orange-yellow tinged salmon, sapwood thin, yellow or brownish-yellow, heartwood distinctly darker, sometimes showing a brownish-red colour; plant glabrous except for densely buff puberulent inflorescences, petals and sepals, young leaves brilliant red; leaves ovate, 4-10 cm 2-5.5 cm, base broadly cuneate, or rarely obtuse, acumen slender, up to 2 cm long, venation scalariform, midrib evident above, secondary veins (6-)8(-9) pairs, arched, slender but distinctly raised beneath; stamens 15, ovary together with stylopodium pear-shaped, glabrous, style short, obscure; 2 longer fruit calyx lobes up to 4 cm 1 cm, broadly spatulate, obtuse, 3 shorter lobes up to 5 mm 1 mm, lanceolate-acicular, thickened, saccate. Hopea ferrea is locally abundant in evergreen forest on rocky ridges and slopes, especially on limestone but also on granite and sandstone formations. The density of the wood is 870-1170 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

[102]Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd edition. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur. Vol. 1 (A–H) pp. 1–1240. Vol. 2 (I–Z) pp. 1241–2444.
[235]Flore du Cambodge du Laos et du Viêtnam (various editors), 1960–. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.
[258]Fundter, J.M., 1982. Names for dipterocarp timbers and trees from Asia. Pudoc, Wageningen. 251 pp.
[601]Satohiko S., 1980. Storage and germination of some Malaysian legume seeds. Malaysian Forester 43: 161–165.
[628]Smitinand, T., Santisuk, T. & Phengklai, C., 1980. The manual of Dipterocarpaceae of mainland South-East Asia. Thai Forestry Bulletin 12: 1–110.
[677]Symington, C.F., 1941. Foresters' manual of dipterocarps. Malayan Forest Records No 16. Forest Department, Kuala Lumpur. pp. xliii + 244.
[748]van Steenis, C.G.G.J. & de Wilde, W.J.J.O. (Editors), 1950–. Flora Malesiana. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.

K.M. Kochummen, F.T. Frietema

Kochummen, K.M. & Frietema, F.T., 1993. Hopea ferrea Lanessan. In: Soerianegara, I. and Lemmens, R.H.M.J. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 5(1): Timber trees; Major commercial timbers. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea