Dipterocarpus gracilis

Definition

Dipterocarpus gracilis is a dipterocarp rainforest tree distributed from continental Southeast Asia through Malesia, including the Philippines. Of modest stature for its genus, it belongs to the keruing timber group and shares the family’s winged-fruit signature.

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	Dipterocarpus gracilis
Wikidata	Q651921
DBpedia	N/A

Also Known As

Keruing (in timber trade grouping); slender dipterocarp (rendering of the Latin epithet).

Examples and Analogies

If its giant relatives are towers, D. gracilis is the traveler: one species threading forests from Assam to the Philippines, demonstrating how the dipterocarp family seeded itself across half a continent before islands and logging divided its range.

Usage Scenarios

Keruing-class timber for general construction
Traditional resin tapping in local forest economies
Biogeographic teaching example of widespread versus endemic dipterocarps

Strategies

Being widespread gives it resilience but no immunity: management emphasizes verified-legal supply chains, retention in community forests, and protection where it occurs within reserves.

Security and Safety Measures

Standard timber-harvest hazards apply; resin-tapped wounds must be controlled to avoid killing trees or fueling ground fires.

Historical Context

Described in the nineteenth century from Southeast Asian collections, the species reflects the period when the dipterocarp family was being organized into the timber groups — lauan, balau, keruing — that still structure Asian hardwood markets.

Challenges and Controversies

Regional deforestation has thinned even widespread species; controversy attaches mainly to timber-origin fraud, as keruing from contested or illegal sources is laundered into generic lumber streams.

References