General Description

Trees up to 60 meter high; approximate 100 cm in diameter; bark greyish brown, shallowly fissured, V-shaped. Outer bark dull purple brown, rather hard, brittle, inner bark fibrous, dull brown or yellowish brown grading to pale at the cambium, sapwood pale or cream, resinous, heartwood dark red or light red brown; leaves elliptic to ovate, 8-14 cm long, 3.5 to 5.5 cm wide, cream scaly, thinly leathery, base obtuse or broadly cuneate, apex acuminate, up to 8 mm long, secondary vein 12-15 pairs, slender, curved towards margin, set at 40 to 550, tertiary veins densely ladder-like, very slender, obscure expect in young tress; stipules 10 mm long, 35 mm wide, scars short, horizontal, obscure, oblong to broadly hastate, obtuse, fugacious, falling off early; Fruit pedicel to 2 mm long, calyx sparsely pubescent, 3 longer lobes up to 10 cm long, approximate 2 cm wide, spatulate, obtuse, approximate 5 mm broad above the to 8 by 6 mm thickened elliptic, shallowly saccate base, 2 shorter lobes up to 5.5 cm long, approximate 0.3 cm wide, unequal, similarly saccate at base. .

Distribution

South Asia rain forest; from Peninsular Thailand throughout the Malay Peninsula (excluding the seasonal area), Sumatera, Bangka and Belitung and Borneo.

Shorea leprosula (also called Light Red Meranti or Meranti) is a species of plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 in the Dipterocarpaceae

Dipterocarpaceae

Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 17 genera and approximately 500 species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus Dipterocarpus, is derived from Greek and refers to the two-winged fruit...

 family. It is found in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, Malaysia, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, and Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

.

Ecology

Shorea leprosula is one of the fastest growing species of Dipterocarp up to about its twentieth year, but it is later surpassed by other Dipterocarp species. Shorea leprosula can grow in a wide variety of site conditions with flat topography found throughout hilly areas, frequently found on well-drained soil, on deep clay soils or swampy soil in the mixed Dipterocarp forest of lowlands and hill up to 700 meter above sea level, but it is a strongly light-demanding species. .

One of the key success for Shorea leprosula planting is light control. Light control should correspond to the light requirements of a species during its growing stages, as well as planting methods should reflect site conditions and growth characteristics of the species. Shorea leprosula is a light-demanding species at the early stage, 60 to 73% (relative light intensity) for seedlings and 74 to 100% for saplings.

Vernacular Names

The trade name for Shorea leprosula is red meranti or meranti merah; Brunai and Sawarak: Meranti tembaga, perawan lop; Malaya and Sumatera: meranti betul, meranti bunga, meranti lempong, meranti tamak, meranti hijau, meranti sabut, merati kait, meranti sepang (Palembang); Kutai: Lampong, banti, barit, bekunsu, belaitok, belito, damar; Sampit: lentang; Dayang Benuag: Mengkorau.

Propogation

Shorea leprosula can be propagated by seeds, cuttings and wildlings.

Source

• Ashton, P. 1998. Shorea leprosula. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 23 August 2007.