Abstract

The family Dipterocarpaceae, since its inception by Blume in 1825, has had a chequered taxonomic history, with additions and deletions of taxa, and the process is still continuing. Out of the total numner of world species, South Asian dipterocarps account for about 16 only. South Asian regions has, however, played a significant role in the taxonomic history of the dipterocarps. The dipterocarps of this region have throughout been associated with the splendour of tropical forests. Most of the speciesother than Shorea robusta were not utilised for a long time and they remained undisturbed in their sequestered domain in remote regions. With the development of plywood industry in the region, their seclusion was broken, their complicated but fragile ecosystem massively disturbed and in several areas in Bangladesh and India their very existence has been threatened. In less than 150 years, plant formations with the dominance of dipterocarps have either been replaced or transformed irretrievably. It is against this background that the importance of collating information relating to various aspects like Botany, Silviculture and Utilisation of this interesting plant group has to be considered. After an overview of the dipterocarps of the region, details pertaining to Taxonomy, Distribution, Ecology, Silviculture, Wood, Non Wood Products and Uses are dealt with species wise. Pests and diseases are treated separately. As floristics are the ultimate indices of edaphic and climatological inter-actions, efforts have been made to describe the compositional characteristics of representative areas in which the dipterocarp species are constituents. An attempt has been made to bring together available informations on all important aspects of the dipterocarpaceoustaxa of the region to serveas a basis for further investigations