Common Names: Mengaris, Honey Bee Tree, Dëoh

The tualang tree is a majestic emergent tree of the Southeast Asia rainforests best know for the disk shaped honeycombs which hang from its horizontal branches. Towering above the canopy the tualang can reach 250 feet, or the 30 stories in height. These trees can be found growing in the lowland forests of southern Thailand, peninsular Malaysia, northeastern Sumatra, Borneo, and Palawan. Their habitat is the primary tropical rainforest. They prefer damp locations along rivers, in valleys, and the lower slopes of hills.



The tualang tree is common locally but is not an abundant tree. There are no great forests of tualangs to be found. Instead solitary trees are often found standing alone in open areas because the wood is hard to cut and local people value the tualang for its honey. A standing tualang is more valuable for its honey than felled for its timber. The wood is brittle and often splinters when it is cut down. The wood is also incredibly hard and

contains silica, making cutting it down a difficult process. With the decline of more accessible hard woods however, tualangs are being cut down for timber, and are being sold under the name of Mangaris wood. The tualang is protected under Sarawak's Wildlife Protection Bill of 1990.

Perhaps the tualang trees are best known for the immense parabolic honey combs which hang from the bottom of their branches. The combs can be 6 feet across and can contain as many as 30,000 bees. One tualang tree can contain more than 100 nests. The world's largest honey bees, Asian rock bees are 1 inch long and the tualangs are their preferred tree species




Some years later the prince went into the forest and saw giant honey combs high in a tualang tree. He climbed up the tree, discovering the sweet honey, and called down to his servants for a knife and a bucket. But when they lowered the bucket, they found the body of the prince hacked to pieces. A voice called out from the tree that he had committed a sacrilege by using a metal implement to cut the comb like that which had killed Hitam Manis. Later a "golden shower" made by the bees restored the prince back to life. To this day no metal is used in harvesting the honey as a sign of respect to Hitam Manis. At dusk the bees fly from their nests and defecate en masse, showering the surrounding ground and foliage with a golden rain. The nitrogen-rich bee feces fertilizes the tualang that hosts the bees, giving it life as it did for the prince.



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World Biomes