Meranti is a common name applied commercially to four groups of species from the genus Shorea, grown most commonly in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. There are thousands of common names for the at least 135 various species from the genus Shorea that use this common name among others. The four groups are "light red", "dark red", "yellow", and "white". Then to compound the confusion, there are ANOTHER 25 or so species from at least 9 unrealted genera that ALSO use the common name meranti. SO ... this name is approximately equivalent to saying "yep, it sure is some kind of wood all right".
Meranti has its own page on this site but it was getting too crowded so I moved all the white meranti to to its own page and all the dark red meranti to this page.
my samples: NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K) colors will vary under other lighting conditions
sample plank of flat cut dark red meranti / Shorea spp.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of quartersawn dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of red balau (dark red meranti) / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. Mark tells me that this piece has been identified as being in the dark red meranti group and is one of the three species: Shorea guiso, Shorea kunstleri, or ochrophloia.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of quartersawn dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The vendor had this as "tianong" which is one of many local names for dark red meranti. Of course, it's also an alternate common name for light red meranti, white meranti, and yellow meranti. My point is, meranti names are pretty much useless.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The vendor of this sample had it as "heavy red" meranti but that's the same as "dark red"
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The vendor of this sample had it as "heavy red" meranti but that's the same as "dark red"
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The vendor of this sample had it as "heavy red" meranti but that's the same as "dark red"
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of dark red meranti / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The vendor of this piece had it as "heavy seraya", which is the same as dark red meranti.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of seraya (heavy red meranti) / Shorea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. "Heavy red" is the same as "dark red"
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