Tree names – a few changes
F.W. Foxworthy’s note corrects botanical nomenclature for several commercial timber trees of the Malay Peninsula ahead of the publication of a forthcoming manual on the subject.
Summary
The note addresses misidentifications and invalid names for nine common timber species, arranged by their widely used Malay names. The most substantial correction concerns Chengal, which Foxworthy argues has been confused with the rare Balanocarpus maximus for thirty years, and which he confirms is uniformly B. Heimii King (p. 339). Other corrections include the transfer of Malut from Balanocarpus to Hopea based on new fruiting material from Lankawi (pp. 340–341), the invalidity of the generic name Coccomelia for Merbatu due to prior use in Euphorbiaceae (p. 341), and the retention of Agathis over Dammara for Damar Minyak per the Vienna Congress nomina conservanda (p. 339). Foxworthy also provides a brief fruit description for Hopea anomala and notes the distribution of Dryobalanops oblongifolia (Keladan) across the Peninsula (p. 340).