| | Commercial timbers |
Nomenclature etc. EUPHORBIACEAE. Trade and local names: jabillo (GT, MX); ceiba amarilla (CO); javillo (CR); catahua (PE); sandboxtree (US); árbol del diablo, haba (GT). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Description based on 8 specimens. Tree. Geographic distribution: Mexico and Central America, Caribbean, tropical South America.
General. Heartwood basically brown to yellow, white or grey (pale yellowish brown or pale olive gray). Sapwood colour similar to heartwood colour. Density 0.37–0.5(–0.68) 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 100–240 µm. Average number of vessels/mm² 3–5. Average vessel element length 455–575 µm. Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits alternate, average diameter (vertical) 13–18 µm. Vessel-ray pits with distinct borders, similar to intervessel pits. Tyloses present, thinwalled.
Tracheids and fibres. Fibres very thin-walled, or of medium wall thickness. Average fibre length 1010–1333 µm. Fibre pits mainly restricted to radial walls, distinctly bordered.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma apotracheal. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse, or diffuse-in-aggregates. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 2–4.
Rays. Rays 6–8 per tangential mm, exclusively uniseriate. Height of large rays up to 500 µm. Rays composed of a single cell type (homocellular); homocellular ray cells procumbent.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals present, prismatic, located in axial parenchyma cells. Crystal-containing axial parenchyma cells chambered. Number of crystals per cell or chamber one. Silica not observed.
Physical and chemical tests. Heartwood not fluorescent. Water extract fluorescent, or not fluorescent (very light blue); colour of water extract yellow. Ethanol extract rarely fluorescent ((very light blue)). Colour of ethanol extract colourless to brown.
Illustrations. • Tree. tree at pacific coast in Mexico. • Macroscopic images. Hura polyandra. transverse (ca. 10x). radial (natural size). • Transverse section. Hura crepitans. • Tangential section. Hura crepitans. • Radial section. Hura crepitans.
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’.
