抄録
Uiu Gadut valley, West Sumatra is characterized by an extreme humid climate and the richest tree flora in the tropics. We recorded 304 tree species (stem diameter > 8 cm) from an onehectare plot, Pinang Pinag in this area, and 75 families and 704 species (stem diameter > 5 or 8 cm) from 6 permanent plots totaling 2.6 hectares. Except a few cases, these tree species have local naming by usually wood and stem characters such as latex, bark color, wood texture, resin, smell and so on.
In South East Asia we have a few of ethnobotanical records on wood use. The PROSEA report (1989) recorded 1517 tree species as timber trees, mainly wood for commerce. Acccording to Mr. Satar, a villager of Ulu Gadut, over 50 % of recorded woody species of this area were useful for house constructions, and many tree species were used for various purposes based on the wood characters. Tree groups based by local name with botanical identities are given in Table 1, and an example of used wood in local house building in Table 2. In Ulu Gadut, woods are usually cut by hand saw in the forest and carried out by man hands. Therefore many tree species with difficulty of sawing cannot be used by local people, such as some species of Canarium and Shorea, Hopea dryobalanoides, Swintonia schwenkii, and most part of Fagaceous trees (Lithocarpus and Quercus).
