Shorea henryana Pierre - DIPTEROCARPACEAE

Synonym : Shorea cambodiana Pierre
Shorea sericeiflora C. Fisher & Hutch
Shorea longestipulata Tardieu

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Botanical descriptions Habitat and ecology Distribution

Botanical descriptions :

Diagnostic characters : Bole straight, leaves glaucous below, stipules falcate and pubescent. Fruit apiculate, 3 big wings and 2 smaller with longitudinal veins crossed by transversal veins.
Habit : Deciduous tree up to 40 m high, sometimes reaching 100 cm in diameter, branches drooping or horizontal to the main trunk. Crown irregularly rounded.
Trunk & bark : Trunk straight. Bark deeply fissured, reddish brown to greyish brown, pale yellow to orange in cut section.
Branches and branchlets or twigs : Branchlets and twigs terete, hairy at tip.
Exudates : Exudate resinous.
Leaves : Leaves simple alternate and distichous, 6.5-12.5 by 2.5 -5 cm, ovate-lanceolate, acute at apex, base attenuate or rounded, margin entire, chartaceous, slightly glaucous below, reddish brown when drying.
Midrib canaliculated above, primary vein single, secondary veins oblique to the midrib, widely parallel, tertiary veins obliquely.
Stipules present, intrapetiolar, sheathing and leaving a circular scar, falcate, pubescent, caducous.
Inflorescences or flowers : Flowers subsessile, arranged in panicle terminal and axillary with 8-9 ramifications, peduncle angular, pubescent.
Fruits : Fruit is a nut, ovoid, 22 x 4 mm, apiculate, glabrous, yellowish-green when young, 3 big wings slightly narrow at base and rounded at the end and 2 wings smaller and acute at top, both densely crossed by very thin veins.
Seeds : Seed 1.

Habitat and ecology :

Found very often in mountain dry evergreen forest up to 900 m on soil based on granite and sandstone and on depleted forest. Fruiting time: in February .

Distribution :

Burma (Myanmar), Malay peninsular, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos (Khammouan, Attapeu, Champassack provinces).

Remark/notes/uses :
The timber is suitable for construction, beams, planking, flooring, plywood, furniture making and even for disposable chopsticks.

Specimens studied :
BT 422 (Herbarium of Faculty of Sciences-NUoL, NHN-Leiden and CIRAD-Montpellier).

Literature :
Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viêtnam 1960-2003. Vol. 25. Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris, France.
B. Svengsuksa & J.E. Vidal. 1997. Les Dipterocarpacées du Laos. Université Nationale du Laos, Vientiane, Laos.
Rachun Pooma & Mark Newman. 2001. Checklist of Dipterocarpaceae in Thailand, Thai Forest Bulletin, no 29. The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand.
Dipterocarps of Vietnam, 2005. Forest Science Institute of Vietnam. Agricultural Publishing House, Hanoi, Vietnam.

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