Morphological identification of local raru producing trees from Sibuluan Nauli, Central Tapanuli, North Sumatera

Abstract

Raru is a local name referring to those of wild tropical trees belonging to the member of Dipterocarpaceae family which are targeted by illegal logger for its wood and bark. Raru wood is widely used for buildings and furniture, while its bark is used for medicinal purposes. Raru tree has disjunctive distribution in Sumatera and Kalimantan with different species variations. The high demand on raru wood has led to population decrease in their natural distribution, meaning that conservation is needed for this species. Species identification is the initial step to determine diversity and relatedness among raru species. The objective of this study was to identify the morphological character of local raru trees in Sibuluan Nauli and to determine their phylogenetic relatedness. Morphological identification was conducted by observing and measuring the stem, leaf, canopy, and resin characters. The results of morphological analysis showed that there were variations in morphological characters of local raru tree species. The phylogenetic identification of songal raru, dahanon raru, pulut raru, and jonggi raru showed that songal raru and pulut raru were not closely related, with genetic distance of 0.8473 while the n dahanon raru and jonggi were closely related, with genetic distance of 0.3878.