Common Names
Almaciga (Spanish) (4), Indonesian kauri (1), mountain agathis, Amboina pitch tree; damar minyak, sanum, tesanum (Pah.) (2).Taxonomic notes
Syn: A. dammara (Lamb.) Rich., in part (1); A. alba Foxworthy (4).Description
"A tree 45-60 m tall, 1.8-6 m in girth, with a conical crown and with somewhat pendent branches. Bark reddish-gray, thick, with numerous resin blisters. Branches cylindrical to angular, subverticillate, dull light green. Bud rounded, with few, imbricate scales. Juvenile leaves distinctly acuminate, 7 cm long by 3 cm wide, oval, with an acute apex. Adult leaves dark green, leathery, narrow, non-acuminate, 4-5 cm long by 1.5-2 cm wide, rounded at the apex, petiole 3-8 mm long. Trees produce abundant resin from the wood. Male strobili to 2.5 cm long; microsporophylls hump-shaped due to a broadly depressed flange which occupies 1/2 of the exposed surface; pollen sacs 3-6. Female cone globular, 7.5-12 cm long; exposed part of the scales much less than the total width of the scale, upper corners of scales are broadly rounded and thin, scales with a prominent scallop on lower third of each scale margin. Seed to 1.3 cm long, one wing to 1.3 cm long, another much shorter" (1).In the field, the species is conspicuous both for its size and for its bark characteristics. Bark is "pale-ochre to gray-brown, bark surface smooth with many corky pustules; the old bark comes off in large rounded flakes exposing pale patches of new bark, which creates the pattern of a jigsaw-puzzle. [When slashed, the outer bark is] thin light pink, clearly distinguished from the inner bark; [which is] 15 mm thick, red brittle, immediately exudes resin after slashing; cambium 2 mm thick, sapwood yellow, heartwood light brown" (4).
Range
Philippines; Indonesia: Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Moluccas; 450-2500 m (1). Corner (2) says "Indo-china throughout Malesia to New Guinea: common in mountain-forests of Malaya from 1000-3600 ft. [330-1100 m], from Negri Sebilan northward." In Mindanao (Philippines) it occurs in the transition zone to mossy forest, mostly at 1000-1500 m elevation, where it conspicuously exceeds other trees in height and diameter. On limestone substrates it is found "almost to sea level in some places along the Pacific coast of Surigao and Davao Oriental and may even mix with yakal (Shorea gisok), a typical low elevation species" (4).Big Tree
Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
Observations
Remarks
This species is listed as "VU A1cd" (vulnerable, population is seriously declining or expected to decline at a specified rate) by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre - Trees database.Citations
(1) Silba 1986.(2) P. 763 in Corner 1988.
(3) Van Gelderen et al. 1986.
(4) P. 75-77 in Seeber, Gotthard, Hans-Joachim Weidelt and Valeriano S. Banaag. 1979. Dendrological characters of important forest trees from eastern Mindanao. Eschborn.
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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/~earlecj/ar/ag/philippinensis.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 20-Apr-1999