''Intsia palembanica'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''palembanica'' is for

Palembang Palembang (, Palembang: ''Pelémbang'', Mandarin: 巨港 (Jùgǎng), Hokkien: 舊港 (Kū-káng), Jawi: ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River in the ea ...

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

, Indonesia. Common names include Borneo teak, Malacca teak and Moluccan ironwood. It is native to a wide area of tropical Asia including Bangladesh, Myanmar, the

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 572 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a ...

, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. ''Intsia palembanica'' differs from ''

Intsia bijuga ''Intsia bijuga'', commonly known as Borneo teak, ipil, merbau, Johnstone River teak, and kwila, amongst many other names, is a species of tree in the flowering plant family Fabaceae, native to coastal areas from east Africa, through India and ...

'' in the number of leaflets that make up the compound leaves.

Names

On the Indonesian island of Sumatra specifically, it is better-known as , etymologically derived from

Minangkabau Minangkabau may refer to: * Minangkabau culture, culture of the Minangkabau people * Minangkabau Culture Documentation and Information Center * Minangkabau Express, an airport rail link service serving Minangkabau International Airport (''see bel ...

, a native Sumatran language commonly spoken in western and southeastern Sumatra regions. It is

anglicized Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

as ' in

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

Conservation

''Intsia palembanica'' has been assessed as

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

. It is mainly threatened by logging for its timber, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. The timber is sold locally and internationally.

Symbolism

On 23 August 2019, the tree, locally known as ''pokok merbau'', officially became the

national tree This is a list of countries that have officially designated one or more trees as their national trees. Most species in the list are officially designated. Some species hold only an "unofficial" status. Additionally, the list includes trees that we ...

of Malaysia. The then-Prime Minister,

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad (; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author and doctor who was respectively the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and from 2018 to 2020. He was the ...

, stated that it represented the strength and endurance of Malaysia's people.

References

palembanica Trees of Malesia Trees of Thailand Trees of Myanmar Trees of Bangladesh Trees of New Guinea Flora of the Andaman Islands Flora of the Nicobar Islands National symbols of Malaysia Plants described in 1861 Fabales of Asia {{Detarioideae-stub