3694

5(1): Timber trees; Major commercial timbers

Parashorea tomentella (Sym.) Meijer

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Parashorea in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Acta Bot. Neerl. 12: 320 (1963).

Parashorea malaanonan (Blanco) Merr. var. tomentella Sym. (1938).

Malaysia: urat mata beludu (Sabah).

Borneo (Sabah).

The timber is used as white seraya; in some localities Parashorea tomentella is the most common timber tree. It is an important export timber of Sabah, used mainly for plywood manufacturing. Locally the timber is used for ship decks, flooring, joinery, cladding, shuttering and utility furniture.

A very large tree up to 60 m tall, bole straight, cylindrical, occasionally branchless for more than 30 m, with a diameter of up to 190 cm, buttresses large, up to 4.5 m high, bark surface grey or nearly black, outer bark yellowish-brown, inner bark reddish-brown, sapwood pale yellowish; leaves elliptical to ovate, 10—17(—20) cm 5—7(—10) cm, lower surface persistently pale tawny pubescent, secondary veins 11—13 pairs, petiole 15—25 mm long, stipule scars amplexicaul; fruit calyx much longer than the nut, 3 longer lobes up to 20 cm 2.3 cm, 2 shorter ones up to 10 cm 0.8 cm, lorate, acute, nut subglobose, up to 2 cm in diameter, verrucose. Parashorea tomentella is common in mixed dipterocarp forest on flat and undulating land below 200 m altitude. The density of the wood is 385—675 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

[100]Burgess, P.F., 1966. Timbers of Sabah. Sabah Forest Records No 6. Forest Department, Sabah, Sandakan. xviii + 501 pp.
[117]Chai, D.N.P., 1973. A note on Parashorea tomentella (urat mata beledu) seed and its germination. Malaysian Forester 36: 202–204.
[118]Chai, D.N.P., 1975. Enrichment planting in Sabah. Malaysian Forester 38: 271–277.
[249]Fox, J.E.D., 1983. The natural vegetation of Sabah, Malaysia 2. The Parashorea forests of the lowlands. Tropical Ecology 24: 94–112.
[250]Fox, J.E.D. & Chai, D.N.P., 1982. Refinement of a regenerating stand of the Parashorea tomentella/Eusideroxylon zwageri type of lowland dipterocarp forest in Sabah – A problem in silvicultural management. Malaysian Forester 45: 133–183.
[258]Fundter, J.M., 1982. Names for dipterocarp timbers and trees from Asia. Pudoc, Wageningen. 251 pp.
[424]Liew, T.C. & Wong, F.O., 1973. Density, recruitment, mortality and growth of dipterocarp seedlings in virgin and logged-over forests in Sabah. Malaysian Forester 36: 3–15.
[474]Meijer, W., 1963. Notes on Borneo Dipterocarpaceae. Acta Botanica Neerlandica 12: 319–353.
[476]Meijer, W. & Wood, G.H.S., 1964. Dipterocarps of Sabah (North Borneo). Sabah Forest Records No 5. Forest Department, Sandakan. 344 pp.
[748]van Steenis, C.G.G.J. & de Wilde, W.J.J.O. (Editors), 1950–. Flora Malesiana. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.
[790]Wong, F.O., 1973. A study of the growth of the main commercial species in the Segaliud-Lokan F.R. Sandakan, Sabah. Malaysian Forester 36: 95–112.

W.M. America

America, W.M., 1993. Parashorea tomentella (Sym.) Meijer. 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