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Nomenclature etc. FAGACEAE. Major species: Castanopsis acuminatissima, C. argentea, C. cuspidata, C. javanica, C. tungurrut. Trade and local names: saninten, New Guinea oak (PG, trade); Malayan chestnut, jertek tangga kata (MY); Philippine chestnut (PH); katia (MM); ko (LA); ko, ko-nam (TH). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Tree. Geographic distribution: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indomalesia.
General. Growth ring boundaries distinct (if visible, marked by few rows of flattened latewood fibres) or indistinct or absent. Heartwood basically brown; without streaks. Sapwood colour similar to heartwood colour, or distinct from heartwood colour. Density 0.52–0.6–0.8 g/cm³.
Vessels. Wood semi ring porous or diffuse porous. Vessels arranged in a diagonal and/or radial pattern, exclusively solitary. Average tangential vessel diameter 120–270 µm. Average number of vessels/mm² 3–18. Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits alternate, average diameter (vertical) 6–8 µm. Information on pits refer to vasicentric tracheids only. Vessel-ray pits with reduced borders or apparently simple, different from intervessel pits, horizontal to vertical. Tyloses present, thinwalled.
Tracheids and fibres. Vascular or vasicentric tracheids commonly present (vasicentric). Fibres of medium wall thickness. Average fibre length 900–1800 µm. Fibre pits mainly restricted to radial walls, simple to minutely bordered.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma banded or not banded. Bands marginal (or seemingly marginal) or not marginal (or seemingly marginal). Axial parenchyma bands forming a reticulate pattern with rays. Bands fine. Axial parenchyma apotracheal, or paratracheal. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse, or diffuse-in-aggregates. Paratracheal axial parenchyma scanty. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 5–8.
Rays. Rays 7–15 per tangential mm, exclusively uniseriate or multiseriate, 1 cells wide (rarely 2–3 seriates). Aggregate rays present (occasionally). Rays of two distinct sizes. Height of large rays commonly over 1000 µm (aggregate rays up to 5 cm high). 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 not fluorescent; colour of water extract colourless to brown. Heartwood extractives leachable when in contact with water. Ethanol extract not fluorescent. Colour of ethanol extract colourless to brown. Splinter burns to full ash. Ash white to grey.
Illustrations. • Macroscopic images: cross section. transverse (ca. 10x). • Macroscopic images: wood surface. surface (natural size). tangential. radial. • Transverse section 1. Castanopsis malayana. • Transverse section 2. Castanopsis sp. • Tangential section. Castanopsis malaccensis. • Radial section. Castanopsis fordii.
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’.
