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| Commercial timbers |
Nomenclature etc. RHIZOPHORACEAE. Syn.: Anopyxis ealaensis Sprague. Trade and local names: kpomuisi (LR); noudougou (CM); bobenkusu (CD); kokote (GH); kpoo, weng, goe, kokoti, gbolowueh (LR). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Description based on 9 specimens. Tree. Geographic distribution: tropical Africa.
General. Heartwood basically brown, yellow to white or grey. Sapwood colour similar to heartwood colour. Density 0.75–0.87 g/cm³.
Vessels. Wood diffuse porous. Vessels arranged in no specific pattern, exclusively solitary. Average tangential vessel diameter 170–260 µm. Average number of vessels/mm² 2–4. Perforation plates simple or scalariform (occasionally present, without diagnostic significance). Vessel-ray pits with distinct borders or with reduced borders or apparently simple, horizontal to vertical. Vessel-ray pits mostly very large, oval to gash-like, only partly bordered. Helical thickenings absent. Tyloses present, thinwalled.
Tracheids and fibres. Vascular or vasicentric tracheids sporadic to absent. Fibres very thick-walled. Fibre pits common in both radial and tangential walls, distinctly bordered. Fibres non-septate.
Axial parenchyma. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse-in-aggregates. Paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric to aliform. Aliform parenchyma of the lozenge type. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 7–13. Paratracheal parenchyma occasionally confluent.
Rays. Rays 4–7 per tangential mm, multiseriate, 2–4 cells wide. Height of large rays commonly 500 to 1000 µm to commonly over 1000 µm. Rays composed of two or more cell types (heterocellular). Heterocellular rays with square and upright cells restricted to marginal rows, mostly 1 marginal row of upright or square cells to with more than 4 marginal rows of upright or square cells.
Storied structures. Storied structure absent.
Secretory structures. Intercellular canals absent.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals present, prismatic, located in ray cells and axial parenchyma cells. Crystal-containing ray cells procumbent. Crystals in procumbent ray cells in radial alignment and not in radial alignment. Crystal-containing axial parenchyma cells chambered and not chambered. Number of crystals per cell or chamber one. Presence of crytals observed in only about 50% the studied specimens. 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’.
