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Nomenclature etc. MYRTACEAE. Trade and local names: deglupta, Mindanao gum (trade); leda (ID). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Description based on 7 specimens. Tree. Geographic distribution: Indomalesia.
General. Heartwood basically brown and red. Sapwood colour distinct from heartwood colour. Density 0.5–0.6 g/cm³.
Vessels. Wood diffuse porous. Vessels arranged in a diagonal and/or radial pattern and no specific pattern, exclusively solitary. Vessel outline rounded. Average tangential vessel diameter 165–240–320 µm. Average number of vessels/mm² 5–9. Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits alternate, average diameter (vertical) 7–10 µm (pits only between vasicentric tracheids and vessels), pits vestured. Vessel-ray pits with reduced borders or apparently simple, different from intervessel pits, rounded or angular. Tyloses present, thinwalled.
Tracheids and fibres. Vascular or vasicentric tracheids commonly present. Fibres of medium wall thickness. Fibre pits common in both radial and tangential walls, distinctly bordered. Fibre pits often more frequent in tangential than radial walls.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma apotracheal, or paratracheal. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse and diffuse-in-aggregates. Paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 4–8. Apotracheal parenchyma consisting mostly of chambered crystalliferous cells; paratracheal parenchyma mixed with vasicentric tracheids.
Rays. Rays present, 9–14 per tangential mm, multiseriate, 1–2 cells wide. Aggregate rays absent. Height of large rays up to 500 µm. Rays composed of a single cell type (homocellular); homocellular ray cells procumbent. Wood rays predominantly but not exclusively uniseriate.
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 red. Heartwood extractives leachable when in contact with water. Ethanol extract fluorescent. Colour of ethanol extract red. Froth test positive. Splinter burns to partial ash. Ash bright white.
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’.
