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| Commercial timbers |
Nomenclature etc. MELIACEAE. Syn.: T. zenkeri Harms, T. vignei Hutch. & Dalz., T. klainei Pierre ex De Wild., Guarea africana Welw. Trade and local names: avodiré (DE, CI, FR, GB, NL), agbé, agbouain, Kakné (CI), apapaye, wansenwa (GH), apaya (NG), engan (CM), esu, kisanda, lusamba (CD), songo (CF). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Tree. Geographic distribution: tropical Africa.
General. Heartwood basically white or grey to yellow. Sapwood colour similar to heartwood colour. Density 0.45–0.5–0.55 g/cm³. Interlocked grain and other fibre irregularities frequent.
Vessels. Wood diffuse porous. Vessels in multiples, commonly in short (2–3 vessels) radial rows. Average tangential vessel diameter 100–143–185 µm. Average number of vessels/mm² 7–12; vessels per square millimetre few. Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits alternate, average diameter (vertical) 2–4 µm. Vessel-ray pits with distinct borders, similar to intervessel pits. Tyloses absent. Other deposits present (yellowish or greenish).
Tracheids and fibres. Fibres very thin-walled, or of medium wall thickness. Fibre pits mainly restricted to radial walls, simple to minutely bordered. Fibres septate and non-septate (septa occasionally very inconspicuous); evenly distributed.
Axial parenchyma. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse-in-aggregates. Paratracheal axial parenchyma scanty to vasicentric. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 4–6(–8).
Rays. Rays 4–7 per tangential mm, multiseriate, 1–2–3 cells wide (mostly biseriate), narrow (2–3 seriate). Rays with multiseriate portions as wide as uniseriate portions present. Height of large rays up to 500 µm. Rays composed of a single cell type (homocellular), or two or more cell types (heterocellular) (most rays homocellular); homocellular ray cells procumbent. Heterocellular rays with square and upright cells restricted to marginal rows, mostly 1 marginal row of upright or square cells (rarely also 2–4).
Secretory structures. Intercellular canals absent.
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.
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’.
