| | Commercial timbers |
Nomenclature etc. EUPHORBIACEAE. Trade and local names: tapi'a guasu, chipa rupa, aicha-aicha (AR, PY); amorão, caixeta, tapiá-guaçú, tapiá-mirim, folha-de-bolo, tamanqueira, canela-samambaia, malacaxeta, tanheiro, canela-raposa, boleiro, chico-rupa, tinteiro (BR). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Description based on 3 specimens. Tree. Geographic distribution: southern Brazil, temperate South America.
General. Heartwood basically brown (according to Mainieri & Péres Chimelo (1989) colour can also be light to pinkish beige), white or grey. Sapwood colour similar to heartwood colour. Density 0.44 g/cm³.
Vessels. Wood diffuse porous. Vessels in multiples, commonly in short (2–3 vessels) radial rows or in radial rows of 4 or more. Average tangential vessel diameter 120–200(–250) µm. Average number of vessels/mm² 2–10(–20). Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits alternate, average diameter (vertical) 13–17 µm. Vessel-ray pits with reduced borders or apparently simple, different from intervessel pits, rounded or angular and horizontal to vertical, of two distinct sizes or types in the same ray cell. Tyloses present, thinwalled. Other deposits present (amber colored).
Tracheids and fibres. Fibres very thin-walled. Fibre pits mainly restricted to radial walls, simple to minutely bordered. Fibres non-septate.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma not banded. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse, or diffuse-in-aggregates. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 4–7(–8).
Rays. Rays 14–18(–22) per tangential mm, exclusively uniseriate. Height of large rays commonly over 1000 µm (according to Mainieri & Péres Chimelo (1989) rays up to 4 mm high). Rays composed of two or more cell types (heterocellular). Heterocellular rays with square and upright cells restricted to marginal rows, mostly 2–4 marginal rows of upright or square cells or with more than 4 marginal rows of upright or square cells. Disjunctive ray parenchyma end walls indistinct or absent. Biseriate rays only occasionally present.
Secretory structures. Laticifers or tanniniferous tubes present. This refers to so-called latex traces as desribed in IAWA (1989); these are large, dark coloured openings in some rays, albeit very infrequent.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals present, prismatic and druses, located in ray cells. Crystal-containing ray cells upright and/or square. Number of crystals per cell or chamber one. The occurrence of two crystals of the same of different size in one cell is rather rare. Silica not observed.
Illustrations. • Transverse section. • Tangential section. • Radial section. • Intervessel pits; latex traces. exceptionally large intervessel pits, up to 17µm in diameter. large latex traces occasionally present.
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’.
