Seraya (HT 2025 331)

Reference ID
HT 2025-331

Scientific name: Rubroshorea curtisii subsp. curtisii
Family name: Dipterocarpaceae
Girth: 4.7 m @ 1.3 m height
Height: 35 m

Location
Singapore Botanic Gardens,
Rainforest (near HT
Jelawai Jaha)

The Seraya is an evergreen emergent tree that can grow up to 70 m in height. The tree can be found on the hill dipterocarp forests and coastal hills across Peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra and Borneo. The Seraya belongs to the Red Meranti group—large, buttressed dipterocarp trees with distinctive red, pink, or orange-brown inner bark. Through taxonomic studies, species from this group (e.g. Shorea curtisii) were revised and assigned to the genus Rubroshorea. This species is currently classified as 'Endangered' in Singapore.

The tree has lanceolate leaves about 8 cm long, each with a short petiole of 1.5 cm. Its small, white, pinwheel-shaped flowers mature from white to yellow before developing into a winged fruit, which are nuts surrounded by three large outer and two small inner persistent calyx wings. Like other dipterocarps, Seraya exhibits masting behaviour, with entire populations flowering and fruiting simultaneously. 

The timber can be used for light to medium construction, carpentry, doors, window frames, utility flooring and boat building.

This Heritage Tree is believed to be a long-standing resident that likely antedates the Singapore Botanic Gardens' establishment in 1859. Standing in the Gardens' Rainforest, it has a girth of approximately 4.7 metres when measured in 2025, making it the largest specimen of Seraya outside Singapore's nature reserves.

For more information on this species, please refer to NParks Flora & Fauna Web profile here.

Gallery

Canopy of Heritage Tree as viewed from Bandstand (📷: Hazri Boey)

Worm's Eye View of Heritage Tree
(📷: Hazri Boey)