''Shorea astylosa'' is a species of

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

in the family

Dipterocarpaceae Dipterocarpaceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, where it is known as ''yakal'' in the

Filipino language Filipino ( ; , ) is the national language of the Philippines, the main lingua franca, and one of the two official languages of the country, along with Philippine English, English. It is only a ''de facto'' and not a ''de jure'' standard langu ...

. Yakal is a medium to large tree about 25 to 30 meters tall. Its wood is hard and dark brownish-yellow, its branchlets slender, blackish, and slightly hairy. Its leaves are coriaceous, ovate to lanceolate, or oblong-lanceolate or apex acuminate. The base are rounded to cuneate, glabrous above and slightly hairy underneath. Its blade is 6.5-nine centimeters long and two-4.5 centimeters wide, with its petiole slender, 10-23 millimeters long, and dark. Its inflorescence are axillary, paniculate, and up to about six centimeters long, with its flowers yellow, very short-stalked, and about 12 millimeters long. The flowers' petals are narrowly oblong or oblong-lanceolate, more or less twisted in bud, rounded at apex, 18 millimeters long, and reticulate.

Habitat

Yakal is commonly found in

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

island, particularly in the

Quezon Quezon, officially the Province of Quezon () and historically known as Tayabas, is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon Regions of the Philippines, region on Luzon. Lucena, a highly urbanized ci ...

and

Camarines Ambos Camarines (, meaning "both"; commonly known as Camarines), officially the Province of Ambos Camarines, was a historical province in the Philippines found on the northern end of the Bicol Peninsula. It now exists as two separate province ...

areas, as well as in the islands of

Samar Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

Negros Negros (, , ) is the fourth largest and third most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of . The coastal zone of the southern part of Negros is identified as a site of highest marine biodiversity importance in the Coral Tr ...

, and

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

(particularly in the island's Zamboanga,

Agusan Agusan may refer to the following: In geography * Agusan province, a former province in the Philippines, now divided between: ** Agusan del Norte ** Agusan del Sur * Legislative district of Agusan in the Philippines for the former province befo ...

, and Davao regions). It can also be found in

primary forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without Disturbance (ecology), disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organizati ...

s at low altitudes.

Uses

Traditional use

Traditional wood extractions of yakal are due to the wood's being tumor-inhibiting.

Contemporary use

Contemporary harvests of yakal are for high-grade construction, bridges and wharves, mine timber, and other installations requiring high strength and durability.Yakal
. rafi.org.ph

References

External links

* * astylosa Endemic flora of the Philippines Trees of the Philippines Endangered flora of Asia Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Dipterocarpaceae-stub