| | Commercial timbers |
Nomenclature etc. MALVACEAE (BOMBACACEAE). Trade and local names: bongo, quipo (CO, PA);. Not protected under CITES regulations.
Tree. Geographic distribution: Mexico and Central America, tropical South America.
General. Growth ring boundaries distinct or indistinct or absent. Heartwood basically light brown, white or grey. Sapwood colour similar to heartwood colour. Density 0.1–0.25 g/cm³. Wood of commercial potential (very limited), or of no commercial potential.
Vessels. Wood diffuse porous. Vessels in multiples, commonly in short (2–3 vessels) radial rows or in radial rows of 4 or more or in clusters. Average tangential vessel diameter (110–)230–360 µm. Average number of vessels/mm² (1–)2–4. Average vessel element length 520–640–760 µm. Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits alternate, average diameter (vertical) 8–10(–17) µm. Vessel-ray pits with reduced borders or apparently simple, different from intervessel pits, rounded or angular or horizontal to vertical. Tyloses absent.
Tracheids and fibres. Fibres very thin-walled. Average fibre length 1460–1880–2320 µm. Fibre pits mainly restricted to radial walls, simple to minutely bordered. Fibres non-septate. Extremely few fibres, ca. 5% of wood volume.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma apotracheal, or paratracheal. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse, or diffuse-in-aggregates (constituting the bulk of wood volume (70–90%)). Paratracheal axial parenchyma scanty. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 4–6.
Rays. Rays 2–5 per tangential mm, multiseriate, 4–6–8 cells wide. Rays of one size. Height of large rays commonly over 1000 µm. Rays composed of two or more cell types (heterocellular). Heterocellular rays with square and upright cells restricted to marginal rows, mostly 1 marginal row of upright or square cells. Sheath cells present.
Storied structures. Storied structure present, some rays storied, some not, axial parenchyma storied, vessel elements storied, fibres storied. Arrangement of tiers regular, or irregular.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals present, prismatic, located in ray cells. Crystal-containing ray cells upright and/or square (sheath cells). Number of crystals per cell or chamber one. Silica present (only in small amounts) or not observed, as grains; in axial parenchyma.
Physical and chemical tests. Chrome azurol-S test negative.
Illustrations. • Transverse section. • Tangential section. • Radial section.
The interactive key allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting specified attributes, summaries of attributes within groups of taxa, and geographical distribution.
Cite this publication as: ‘Richter, H.G., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2000 onwards. Commercial timbers: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. In English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Version: 9th April 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
