Hopea
Content
Description
Small or medium-sized, occasionally large, trees;
Bark surface at first smooth, chocolate and grey mottled, hoop-marked;
Leaves small or medium-sized, or narrowly oblong, large;
Stipules linear, fugaceous (subpersistent in saplings).
Inflorescence paniculate, slender, terminal or axillary.
Sepals imbricate;
Petals oblong, connate at base and falling in a rosette.
Stamens 10, 15 or up to 38 (H. plagata), in 1-3 verticils or irregular, falling with the petals;
Ovary glabrous or tomentose, ovoid and with indistinct stylopodium marked by a ring of hairs at the apex of the ovary, or with a distinct stylopodium and hence pyriform, hour-glass-shaped, or cylindrical;
Fruit relatively small:
Distribution
Andamans present, Asia-Temperate: China South-Central (Yunnan present); Hainan (Hainan present), Asia-Tropical: Lesser Sunda Is. absent; Thailand (Thailand present), Burma present, Ceylon present, Kwangsi present, South and East India present, continental S. China present
About 102 spp. in Ceylon, Andamans, South and East India, Burma, Thailand, Indochina, continental S. China (Yunnan, Kwangsi, S. Kwantung), Hainan, and 84 spp. throughout Malesia except the Lesser Sunda Islands. .
Uses
Though some of the larger species provide a heavy durable construction timber few are common enough to be important economically. Several species in sect, subsect. Dryobalanoides produce a clear crystalline resin, damar mata kuching, that was formerly a valuable article of commerce.
Notes
Though apparently natural groupings whose typical members are at once recognisable, the subsections and even sections of this genus are ill-defined in that several species share certain characters from more than one section, in marked contrast with the infrageneric groupings of the closely allied genus Shorea. See for a discussion about the subdivision of the genus accepted here .
Pollination in those examined appear to be effected by thrips. Triploidy is known in both emergent (H. odorata), main canopy (H. beeeariana) and understorey species (H. subalata). Either or both these factors may explain the high degree of local endemism in the understorey subsections Sphaeroearpae and Pierrea, and the curious local diversification in New Guinea.
Pollination in those examined appear to be effected by thrips. Triploidy is known in both emergent (H. odorata), main canopy (H. beeeariana) and understorey species (H. subalata). Either or both these factors may explain the high degree of local endemism in the understorey subsections Sphaeroearpae and Pierrea, and the curious local diversification in New Guinea.
Citation
DC. 1868 – In: Prod.: 632
Heim 1892: Rech. Dipt: 11: pro sect. Sphaerocarpae Heim, l.c.
Foxw. 1938 – In: Philip. J. Sc.: 273
Ashton 1963 – In: Gard. Bull. Sing.: 254
Sym. 1943: p. 108. – In: Mal. For. Rec.: f. 67
Brandis 1895 – In: J. Linn. Soc. Bot.: 53
Gutierrez 1968 – In: Act. Manill.: 3
Smitinand 1980 – In: Thai For. Bull. (Bot.): 42
Endl. 1840: Gen. Pl: 1014: 'Hoppea'
Sym. 1943 – In: Mal. For. Rec.: 147
Roxb. 1968: Man. Dipt. Brun.: 37
Roxb. 1964: Man. Dipt. Brun.: 89
Dyer 1874 – In: Fl. Br. Ind.: 308
Burck 1887 – In: Ann. Jard. Bot. Btzg: 235
Ashton 1972 – In: Blumea: 359
Meijer & Wood 1964 – In: Sabah For. Rec.: 203
Roxb. 1978 – In: Gard. Bull. Sing.: 28
Heim 1892: Rech. Dipt.: 59