Koompassia malaccensis Benth., in Hook.f. Icon. Pl. 3, 2 (1876)

Latin for 'from Malacca', a city in Peninsular Malaysia.

Synonyms
Koompassia beccariana Taub.
Koompassia borneensis Merr.

Diagnostics
Emergent tree up to 56 m tall and 149 cm dbh. Stem very smooth. Stipules ca. 2 mm long. Leaves alternate, compound, leaflets alternate, penni-veined, glabrous. Flowers ca. 3 mm diameter, white, placed in panicles. Fruits ca. 97 mm long, green, strongly flattened, light weight, wind dispersed pods, twisted lengthwise.

Description
Giant tree up to 45(-60) m high and 64(-149) cm in diam.; buttresses steep, planklike, thick and up to 3(-6) m high. Stipules broadly ovate, 2-2.5 mm wide, pubescent outside. Leaves 5-9(-14)-foliolate; rachis slender 6.5-19 cm, pubescent, glabrescent; petiole 1.5-4 cm; petiolules short, 4-7.5(-9) mm, densely minutely puberulous. Leaflets thinly to rigidly coriaceous, ovate-elliptic, elliptic-oblong or lanceolate, more or less symmetrical, 5.5-10.4(-12.5) by 1.5-5 cm; base usually rounded; apex acuminate; glabrous except minutely puberulous on the midrib above, densely to thinly pubescent beneath. Inflorescences up to 12 cm long, rachis pubescent, densely flowered; pedicels 0.75-2.5 mm, densely puberulous. Calyx lohes lanceolate, 2.5-3 by c. 1 mm, densely puberulous outside. Petals orbicular to obovate, c. 2.5 by 1.1 mm, rounded at the apex, glabrous. Stamens nearly half the length of the petals; filaments slender, 0.5-0.75 mm; anthers heart-shaped, about as long as the filaments, glabrous. Ovary c. 1 mm long, densely dark brown puberulous; style very short and stigma indistinct. Pods oblong, 9.5-15 by 3-4.5 cm incl. the wing, pubescent, veined. Seeds very flat, compressed, irregularly oblong, up to 3.3 by 1 cm, purplish black and shallowly rugose. [from Flora Malesiana]

Ecology
In undisturbed mixed dipterocarp, (peat)-swamp and sub-montane forests up to 1100 m altitude. Usually on hillsides and ridges on clay to sandy soils.

Uses
Timber eminently suitable for heavy permanent structures, and also good for flooring, railway sleepers, dock blocks, fence posts, shingles, etc.

Distribution
Peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo.

Local names
Borneo: Berniung, Impas, Kempas, Kempas merah, Menggaris, Menggris, Meryang.