Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 17 genera and approximately 580-680 species of mainly tropical lowland rainforesttrees with two-winged fruits. The largest genera are Shorea (360 species), Hopea (105 species), Dipterocarpus (70 species), and Vatica (60 species). Many are large forest emergent species, typically reaching heights of 40-70 m tall. The species of this family are of major importance in the timber trade. Their distribution is pantropical , from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India, Indochina and Malesia, with the greatest diversity and abundance in western Malesia. Some species are now endangered as a result of overcutting and extensive illegal logging. They provide valuable woods, aromatic essential oils, balsam, and resins.
The dipterocarp family is generally divided into three subfamilies:
Monotoideae: 3 genera, 30 species. Monotes has 26 species, distributed across Africa, Madagascar, South America. Pseudomonotes is native to the Colombian Amazon. Marquesia is native to Africa.
Pakaraimoideae: contains a single species, Pakaraimaea roraimae , found in the Guaianan highlands of South America.
Dipterocarpoideae: the largest of the subfamilies, it contains 13 genera and 470-650 species. Distribution includes the Seychelles, Sri Lanka, India, Southeast Asia to New Guinea, but mostly in west Malesia, where they form the dominant species in the lowland forests. The Dipterocarpoideae can be divided into two groups (Ashton, 1982; and Maury-Lechon and Curtet, 1998):
Valvate-Dipterocarpi group (Anisoptera, Cotylelobium, Dipterocarpus, Stemonoporus, Upuna, Vateria, Vateriopsis, Vatica). The genera of this group have valvate sepals in fruit, solitary vessels, scattered resin canals, and basic chromosome number x = 11.
Imbricate-Shoreae group (Balanocarpus, Hopea, Parashorea, Shorea). The genera of this group have imbricate sepals in fruit, grouped vessels, resin canals in tangential bands, and basic chromosome number x = 7. A recent molecular study (Dayanandan et. al., 1999) suggest that the genus Hopea forms a clade with Shorea sections Anthoshorea and Doona, and should be merged into Shorea.
A recent genetic study (Ducousso et. al. 2004) found that the Asian dipterocarps share a common ancestor with the Sarcolaenaceae, a tree family endemic to Madagascar. This suggests that ancestor of the Dipterocarps originated in the southern supercontinent of Gondwana, and that the common ancestor of the Asian dipterocarps and the Sarcolaenaceae was found in the India-Madagascar-Seychelles land mass millions of years ago, and were carried northward by India, which later collided with Asia and allowed the dipterocarps to spread across Southeast Asia and Malesia.
Timbers
The following table associates tree species, wood name and wood color. The term Philippine red mahogany refers to the wood of trees belonging to the genera Shorea and Parashorea .
Genus & section
Species
Wood name
Wood colour
Wood type
Anisoptera
A. cochinchinensis, A. marginata, A. scaphula, A. thurifera and about ten other species
Mersawa
light hardwood
Cotylelobium
C. burckii, C. lanceolatum, C. melanoxylon
Resak
heavy hardwood
Dipterocarpus
D. alatus, D. baudii, D. basilanicus, D. borneensis, D. caudiferus, D. costulatus, D. grandiflorus, D. kerrii, D. tonkinensis, D. verrucosus, D. warburgii, and about 60 other species
Keruing
medium hardwood
Dryobalanops
D. aromatica, D. camphora, D. junghunii, D. kayanensis, D. lanceolata, D. oblongifolia, D. sumatrensis
Kapur, Kapor
medium hardwood
Hopea
H. acuminata, H. beccariana, H. dryobalanoides, H. mengarawan, H. nervosa, H. odorata, H. sangal and other species
Merawan
medium hardwood
Hopea
H. ferrea, H. forbesii, H. helferi, H. nutans, H. semicuneata and other species
Giam
heavy hardwood
Neobalanocarpus
N. heimii
Chengal
heavy hardwood
Parashorea
P. aptera, P. buchananii, P. chinensis, P. densiflora, P. globosa, P. lucida, P. macrophylla, P. malaanonan, P. parvifolia, P. smythiesii, P. stellata, P. tomentella
Gerutu
light hardwood
Parashorea
Parashorea plicata
Bagtikan
grey-brown
Shorea (Pentacme)
S. contorta, S. minandensis
White Lauan
grey to very light red
Shorea sect. Shorea
S. atrinervosa, S. brunnescens, S. crassa, S. exelliptica, S. foxworthyi, S. glauca, S. havilandii, S. laevis, S. leptoderma, S. materialis, S. maxwelliana, S. seminis, S. submontana, S. sumatrana, S. superba
Balau
heavy hardwood
Shorea sect. Almon
S. almon, S. contorta, S. leprosula, S. leptoclados, S. smithiana
Almon
light red to pink
Shorea sect. Anthoshorea
S. assamica, S. assamica, S. bracteolata, S. dealbata, S. hypochra, S. javanica, S. lamellata, S. maranti
White Meranti
light hardwood
Shorea sect. Richetia
S. acuminatissima, S. faguetiana, S. gibbosa, S. hopeifolia, S. multiflora
Yellow Meranti
light hardwood
Shorea sect. Rubroshorea
S. curtisii, S. hemsleyana, S. macrantha, S. pauciflora, S. platyclados, S. rugosa, S. singkawang, 4 other spp.
Dark red Meranti (Meranti bukit)
light hardwood
S. acuminata, S. dasyphylla, S. johorensis, S. lepidota, S. parvifolia
Light red Meranti
light hardwood
S. balangeran, S. collina, S. guiso, S. kunstleri, S. ochrophloia, S. plagata
Ashton, P.S. Dipterocarpaceae. Flora Malesiana, 1982 Series I, 92: 237-552.
Maury-Lechon, G. and Curtet, L. Biogeography and Evolutionary Systematics of Dipterocarpaceae. In A Review of Dipterocarps: Taxonomy, ecology and silviculture, 1998. Appanah, S. and Turnbull, J.M. eds. Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia. ISBN 979-8764-20-X.
Dayanandan, S. Ashton, P.S. Williams, S.M. Primack, R.B. 1999. Phylogeny of the tropical tree family Dipterocarpaceae based on nucleotide sequences of the chloroplast RBCL gene. American Journal of Botany. 86(8): 1182.
M. Ducousso, G. Béna, C. Bourgeois, B. Buyck, G. Eyssartier, M. Vincelette, R. Rabevohitra, L. Randrihasipara, B. Dreyfus, Y. Prin. The last common ancestor of Sarcolaenaceae and Asian dipterocarp trees was ectomycorrhizal before the India-Madagascar separation, about 88 million years ago. Molecular Ecology 13: 231 January 2004.
