Agathis borneensis Seeds | Borneo Kauri

Borneo Kauri (Agathis borneensis) with broad glossy leaves and a straight emergent trunk — Borneo Kauri (*Agathis borneensis*): Araucariaceae, an emergent giant of Borneo’s heath and peat forests, tapped for damar resin.

LATIN NAME: Agathis borneensis

COMMON NAME: Borneo Kauri, Damar Minyak

Plant Profile

Borneo Kauri is an emergent tree of the Southeast Asian rainforest, reaching forty to sixty metres above the canopy on a straight, cylindrical trunk. The leaves are broader and softer than those of its New Zealand cousin, and the bark exudes a pale resin that hardens into the damar of trade. The crown is deep and dark, and a mature tree stands clear of its neighbours by a head and shoulders.

It grows from the Malay Peninsula through Sumatra and Borneo, often on the poor, acidic soils of heath forest and peat swamp where few other large trees can compete. These forests flood, dry and flood again, and the species tolerates both extremes better than most of its neighbours.

Science & Biotechnology

The genus is a classic case of Gondwanan distribution, with species in New Zealand, New Caledonia, Fiji, Queensland and Malesia, and the Malesian group is the most diverse. Agathis borneensis is closely allied to A. dammara and has been treated as a variety of it by some authors.

Its resin chemistry is dominated by diterpenoid acids and resenes, the mix that makes damar a hard, clear varnish rather than a soft gum. Forest research on the species has concentrated on its role as an emergent: a single tree modifies light, litter and throughfall across a wide area, and its loss changes the structure of everything beneath it.

Uses & Benefits

Damar minyak is still collected from wild trees in parts of Borneo for varnish, incense and caulking, though plantation rubber and synthetic resins have taken most of the market. The timber is used locally for construction, and larger logs enter international trade under restriction.

In cultivation the tree is limited to tropical collections and very large landscapes. Its size rules out ordinary gardens, but young plants make striking conservatory specimens for a decade before they outgrow the space. The species is also planted in reforestation mixtures on degraded heath land.

Growing from Seed

Kauri seed does not keep. Sow it within a few weeks of collection, pressed into a free-draining mix of peat, grit and bark, and hold at twenty-five to thirty degrees with high humidity. Germination is quicker than in the temperate species, often three to six weeks, but the seedlings are just as slow to build.

Keep the young plant warm, bright and humid, and never let the compost go dry or sour. The root is coarse and easily damaged, so pot on rarely and carefully. In the tropics it can be planted out at a metre; anywhere cooler it is a conservatory plant, and it will need a root barrier to stop it lifting paving.

Our Take

A rainforest giant for the patient tropical grower, and the easiest of the kauris to raise from fresh seed. Expect height, not speed, and do not plant it where a garden tree is wanted. Given space, it needs nothing else from anyone.

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