Dryobalanops C.F.Gaertn.

Large or very large, occasionally medium-sized, trees; with tall, long, concave, rather thick, narrowly rounded plank buttresses, spreading over the surface apically as large sinuous roots; crown very large, hemispherical or dome-shaped, rather diffuse; 'cauliflower' shaped with a few large twisted branches ascending from the bole apex, the branchlets numerous, bunched towards the ends. Bark surface evenly or persistently shaggily flaked; twigs ribbed owing to the decurrent leaf trace, slender. Stipules linear, fugaceous. Leaves coriaceous, prominently acuminate, with slender dense hardly raised nervation; nerves very many, parallel, straight, rarely branched apically, linked at the margin by a +-(visible intramarginal nerve; secondary nerves, if present, indistinct; tertiary nerves subreticulate, generally obscure; midrib sunken above, prominent beneath; petiole distinctly channelled above, slender, not geniculate., Inflorescences paniculate, lax, diffuse, few flowered; bracteoles minute, fugaceous. Flower buds narrowly ovoid, obtuse. Calyx lobes equal, imbricate, glabrous, united at base into a ± cuneate tube tapering into the pedicel. Petals broadly elliptic, subacute, glabrous, hardly contorted in bud, united at base and falling in a rosette, white. Stamens c. 30, glabrous, subequal, the innermost slightly longer than the outermost, epipetalous, yellow; filaments broad and compressed, connate at base, tapering in the distal half and filiform below the anther; anthers long, linear, latrorse; pollen sacs subequal, the outer somewhat larger than the inner; appendage to connective small, stout, hardly projecting above the anthers. Ovary ± ovoid, glabrous, without distinct stylopodium; style c. 3 times length of ovary, glabrous; stigma minute. Fruit calyx with basal cup partially enclosing, but free from, base of nut; 5 lobes subequal, subvalvate, short and acute or long spatulate, obtuse, +-rotate. Nut large, glabrous, with short apiculate style remnant. Pericarp splitting at germination into 3 valves; cotyledons reniform, epigeal, on long slender hypocotyl; first 2 pairs of leaves opposite, with a very short intermediate internode.

Semigregarious or gregarious emergent canopy trees of lowland dipterocarp, heath and mixed Peat Swamp forests to 800 m; on account of their size playing an important structural role in the forests where they occur.

Uses. The timber is an important moderately heavy and durable construction timber. D. aromatica was once a major source of camphor, obtained as crystals in splits within the bole by felling.