''Shorea hypochra'' called, along with some other species in the genus ''

Shorea Fruit of a ''Shorea'' species ''Shorea'' is a genus of about 196 species of mainly rainforest trees in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The genus is named after Sir John Shore, the governor-general of the British East India Company, 1793–1798. Th ...

'', white meranti, is a species of tree in the family

Dipterocarpaceae Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...

. It grows naturally in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

Description

A very large tree up to 60 m tall with bole branchless for 24–30 m and up to 165 cm in diameter; leaves ovate to elliptical, 7–18 cm x 4.5–8 cm, thickly leathery, with 15-20 pairs of secondary veins, lower surface cream lepidote, petiole 2–4 cm long; stamens 15, stylopidium absent; larger fruit calyx lobes up to 17 cm x 2.6 cm. ''S. hypochra'' occurs on flat and undulating land near the coast or in seasonal dipterocarp forest at low latitude. The density of the wood is 530–865 kg/mᶟ at 15% moisture content.

Distribution

Indo-China towards Peninsular Malaysia and the Riau and Lingga Archipelago.

Uses

The timber is used as white meranti. A

dammar Dammar, also called dammar gum, or damar gum, is a resin obtained from the tree family Dipterocarpaceae in India and Southeast Asia, principally those of the genera '' Shorea'' or '' Hopea'' (synonym ''Balanocarpus''). The resin of some species ...

of good quality ('dammar temak') has been yielded on a commercial scale.

References

* ROSEAPlant Resource of South-East Asia 5. 1994a. (1)Timber Trees: Major commercial timbers. PROSEA, Bogor. hypochra Trees of Indo-China Trees of Peninsular Malaysia Trees of Sumatra Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Dipterocarpaceae-stub