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Vateria indica
Also called Indian Copal Tree, Piney Varnish Tree, White Damar
White dammar is a large canopy or emergent tree native to the wet evergreen forests of the Western Ghats in southwest India, valued for its timber and resin. It is a forest tree rather than a garden or houseplant, so it is grown mainly as a shade or avenue tree in warm, humid, frost-free areas.
Vateria indica, the white dammar, is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is endemic to the Western Ghats mountains in India. It is threatened by habitat loss. It is a large canopy or emergent tree frequent in tropical wet evergreen forests of the low and mid-elevations (below 1200 m).
The species is endemic to the Western Ghats mountain range in India, in the southern and central region, from the Agasthyamalai Hills in the south to southern Maharashtra. It chiefly occurs in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. The species occurs in evergreen forests from the coastal plains and foothills usually up to an elevation of about 760 m, or to 800 m on the windward side of the Western Ghats in Karnataka. Although it is more common in lower elevations, trees may be found up to an elevation of 1200 m.
Vateria indica wood has been used for making tea-chests, partitions, packing and cordite cases, coffins, boxes, planking, posts, floorings, ceilings, and cabinets, besides bobbins and shuttles in the textile industry, oars for sea-going vessels, and match-splints Large amounts of Vateria indica timber were shipped from the Malabar region to Bombay to be sold as "Malabar White Pine" (Vellapiney), with around 6200 tons of timber used per annum in the late 1960s. The wood, after preservative treatment, was also used for railway sleepers.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vateria indica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
