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Botanical Name
| Shorea curtisii Dyer ex King |
| Genus | Shorea |
| Group | Red Meranti |
| Family | Dipterocarpaceae |
| Distribution | This species is distributed in the Malay Peninsula, Pattani and Narathiwat in the extreme southest of peninsular Thailand, the Lingga Archipelago, and northwestern Borneo, but S. curtisii has not been recorded from Sumatra. In the hill dipterocarp forests, in most localities of the peninsula, S. curtisii is the most common and characteristic species, and it has been taken as an indicator of this forest zone (Symington 1936: 335). On inland mountain ranges the altitudinal range is usually about 300 – 800 m but sometimes, particularly on coastal hills, it occurs at considerably lower levels, and seraya trees have been noted almost at see level. It occasionally occurs above 800 m, where it has been found along with S. platyclados (meranti bukit). Although critically reduced by logging, this species can hardly be considered at risk. |
| Bole Characteristics | Large trees (as large as any in the Red Meranti group), frequently exceeding 3 m girth and sometimes much larger (record = 7 m); buttresses usually short and stout; bole well shaped but rather shorter than that of related forms (a characteristic of trees on ridge tops), grey or reddish brown, rather coarsely fissured; dammar exudations grey-brown or pale brown with a purple tinge when fresh, opaque, senescing to yellow; crown of wide-spreading main limbs and clustered smaller branches with leaves arranged in unbrella-like clusters, very light in colour (conspicious on the upper slopes from a distance) owing to the pale, waxy bloom on the upper surface of the leaves; twigs and branches brittle, often littering the ground beneath the crown. |
| Herbarium Characteristics | Lanceolate, acuminate, about 8 x 3 cm, finely 14-nerved, upper surface usually covered with a glaucous bloom, lower surface pale silvery or yellow glaucescent; petioles slender, about 1.5 cm long. |
