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| Commercial timbers |
Nomenclature etc. FAGACEAE. Live oak timbers, including those of the genus Lithocarpus, are important trade timbers particularly in China, Southeast Asia and Central America. Trade and local names: Asia: Sunda oak (trade); pasang (MY, ID); ko (TH); Central America: encino, roble with various sobriquets, for instance roble prieto (Q. durifolia), encino colorado (Q. castanea), mamecillo (Q. lancifolia). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Tree. Geographic distribution: temperate Asia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indomalesia, Mexico and Central America.
General. Growth ring boundaries distinct or indistinct or absent. Nearly semi-ringporous in some species. Heartwood basically brown; with streaks or without streaks. Sapwood colour distinct from heartwood colour. Density 0.75–1.1 g/cm³.
Vessels. Vessels present. Wood semi ring porous or diffuse porous. Vessels arranged in a diagonal and/or radial pattern, exclusively solitary. Average tangential vessel diameter 100–250 µm. Average number of vessels/mm² 5–10. Perforation plates simple. Vessel-ray pits with reduced borders or apparently simple, rounded or angular or horizontal to vertical. Helical thickenings absent. Tyloses present, thinwalled.
Tracheids and fibres. Vascular or vasicentric tracheids commonly present (vasicentric). Fibres of medium wall thickness to very thick-walled. Average fibre length 900–2200 µm. Fibre pits mainly restricted to radial walls, simple to minutely bordered.
Axial parenchyma. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse, or diffuse-in-aggregates. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 6–8.
Rays. Rays 10–12 per tangential mm (only uniseriates), multiseriate, 8–20 cells wide (only large rays). Aggregate rays present, or absent. Rays of two distinct sizes. Height of large rays commonly over 1000 µm (up to several cm). Rays composed of a single cell type (homocellular); homocellular ray cells procumbent.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals present, prismatic, located in ray cells or axial parenchyma cells. Crystal-containing ray cells procumbent, upright and/or square ray cells chambered or not chambered. Crystals in procumbent ray cells not in radial alignment. 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, or not leachable by water. Ethanol extract not fluorescent. Colour of ethanol extract colourless to brown.
Illustrations. • Macroscopic images. transverse (ca. 10x). tangential surface (natural size). radial surface (natural size). Quercus durifolia. • Transverse section: Q. lineata. Quercus lineata. • Transverse section: Q. poculiformis. Quercus poculiformis. • Tangential section. Quercus lineata. • Radial section. Quercus lineata.
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’.
