Check List of Sabah Trees; Preferred

This pocket check-list replaces North Borneo Forest Record No. 6 “Check list of the Forest Flora of North Borneo” by G.H.S. Wood and J. Agama, first published in 1956, with subsequent editions. It is intended primarily as a definitive list of preferred vernacular names for those trees of Sabah which are commercially, ecologically or horticulturally important. With species from 80 families represented it takes into account most of the known big trees in Sabah forests and as such should provide some assistance in identification. Some families can be fairly readily identified: Leguminosae nearly always has compound leaves and often smooth grey bark; Sapotaceae has a white creamy exudate, and Guttiferae a yellow one; Burseraceae has a characteristic resinous smell; Dipterocarpaceae always has damar; Ebenaceae has black outer bark, often hard and brittle like charcoal; Lauraceae yellow sapwood and characteristic aromatic smell; Annonaceae has prominent rays, sweet scent and the slash tears easily into strips, and Fagaceae (Quercus and Lithocarpus), tanniferous bark with broad rays. Each family has characters, which help to identify it, but without a long key, spot characters might be confusing. This is not a flora and in order to keep it as a truly “Pocket” check-list, keys, diagrams, etc, have not been included. These may be found in the different identification manuals now available. The taxonomy of the trees of Sabah is still developing in respect of many families and work continues in the herbarium at Sandakan and at various other herbaria throughout the world, in particular the Rijksherbarium, Leiden, and Kew Herbarium, London, from whom many of the names in this book originate and whose continued help is gratefully acknowledged. Only one vernacular name is given for each species, this is the Preferred Vernacular Tree Name. The object is to standardise the use of vernacular names so that all officers of the Forest Department and other interested persons will know the species being referred to. Many of the names are taken either form Forest Record No. 6 or Forest Record No. 2 (A Preliminary List of North Borneo Plant Names by H.G. Keith, 1952). The basis of choice of name is that whenever a well known local name exists in one of the languages widely used in Sabah (Dusun, Bajau, Murut, Bisaya, Suluk or Malay) it is adopted as the preferred name. Where there is more than one well known local name preference is generally given to a name in one of the indigenous languages rather than one of the introduced ones. In some cases where a suitable local name does not exist then a name used in Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak or Brunei has been accepted. Many of the Dipterocarps of the Keruing and Red Seraya groups have been given coined Malay names as used by Meijer and Wood in “Dipterocarps of Sabah”, Sabah Forest Record No. 5 (1964).