Common Name: Petaling

General Information

Petaling is an evergreen tree with a dense and dark crown; usually growing up to 30 metres tall but with some specimens up to 50 metres[]. The bole, which is fluted and often has short buttresses at the base, can be straight or rather poorly shaped, branchless for up to 15 - 20 metres and up to 60 -80 cm in diameter[].
The tree is harvested from the wild for its edible seeds and medicinal uses. The useful wood is also harvested from the wild and used locally as well as being traded internationally.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Malaysia, Indonesia.

Habitat

A fairly common but scattered understorey or rarely canopy tree of primary or sometimes secondary lowland rain forest at elevations up to 950 metres. It often thrives in mixed dipterocarp forest on undulating country or hillsides and ridges[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	30.00 m
Growth Rate	Slow
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant of the moist tropical lowlands where it can be found at elevations from sea level up to 950 metres[].
Succeeds on a variety of soils[]. It is found in the wild on clay-rich, loamy or sandy, usually well-drained soils, apparently growing well on laterite, and is only rarely found in periodically inundated locations[]. Plants are very tolerant of shade[].
Under natural conditions, it takes approximately 150 years for a tree to grow to a diameter of 50cm, and 200 years to reach a diameter of 60cm, but a mean annual diameter increment of about 1cm has been reported for an individual 44-year-old tree in the arboretum of the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia[].
In a sample plot with 308 petaling trees an annual diameter increment of 5mm has been measured[].
Early growth is about 2.4 metres in height in 5 years[]. In a plantation trial in Malaysia, trees with an age of 33 years attained a mean height of 21 metres[].
The tree flowers almost throughout the year, the fruits may be found throughout the year, but mast fruiting years have been observed[].
Natural regeneration of petaling is sparse and scattered, but may be fairly plentiful under favourable conditions[].
Natural vegetative reproduction takes place by means of coppice shoots and root suckers[].
Trees are not resistant to fire - about 90% mortality was observed after a fire in East Kalimantan[].

Edible Uses

The seeds are edible when cooked or roasted[].

Medicinal

A decoction of the bark has been used medicinally against fever and after childbirth[].

Rheumatic fever has been treated by applying a paste of the roots with bark of Koompassia or by a bath prepared by using the leaves along with Koompassia bark and coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) seed[].

Agroforestry Uses:

Because of its shade tolerance, petaling is useful for underplanting in forest plantations to reduce weed growth and hence the costs of weed control[]. In this way it has been successfully planted with meranti (Shorea spp.) in Peninsular Malaysia[].

Other Uses

The wood is hard, heavy, close-grained, durable, strong and resistant to white ants[]. It is used for house posts and other heavy construction purposes such as bridge bearers for logging roads and railways, for telephone poles, foundation piles, fence posts, flooring and tool handles[, ]. Because it has no figure it is less suitable for furniture or indoor work such as staircases, but the wood has been observed to be used as such. Utilization for pallets, boxes, and crates has also been reported. The high elasticity of the wood makes it suitable for gymnasium equipment, such as horizontal bars[].

Propagation

Seed - very slow to germinate[]. In a test. the first seedling was observed 10 weeks after sowing and the last one more than 2 years after sowing[]. The germination percentage is about 20%[].

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