Hopea apiculata or known commonly as resak melukut is a small tree with a girth rarely exceeding 1.0 m and has smooth bark. It is endemic to Peninsular Malaysia and inhabits lowland areas of dipterocarp forests up to 610 m altitudes (Yong et al., 2011).

This species has a short and dark bole with light patches and a few exudations of pale dammar. The buttresses are rather sharp and tend to be stilted. The thin outer bark is dark in colour while the inner bark is about 8 mm thick and the sapwood are pale coloured and hard. The leaf resembles of Neobalanocarpus heimii, known locally as chengal which is oblong-lanceolate in shape and sometimes slightly unequal-sided. It turns yellow-brown when dried. H. apiculata produces a small fruit with rudimentary wings and the nut is up to 2 cm long. Due to its restricted distribution and habitat degradation, this species is categorized as Endangered resulting from land conversion activities (Chua et al., 2010; Yong et al., 2011).