| | Commercial timbers |
Nomenclature etc. SAPINDACEAE. Including Pometia ridleyi King. Trade and local names: kasai, matoa, megan, taun (trade); leungsir, tawan, ihi mendek (ID); sibu (MY-sar); malugai (PH); paga-nyet-su ava (MM); chieng dong, kwaang (LA); sai, daengnam (TH). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Tree. Geographic distribution: Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indomalesia.
General. Growth ring boundaries distinct. Demarcated by marginal parenchyma bands. Heartwood basically brown, red; rarely with streaks. Sapwood colour distinct from heartwood colour. Density 0.63–0.75 g/cm³ (density very variable (0.39–0.86) depending on species and origin).
Vessels. Wood diffuse porous. Vessels in multiples, commonly in short (2–3 vessels) radial rows or in radial rows of 4 or more. Average tangential vessel diameter 70–310(–360) µm. Average number of vessels/mm² 1–7. Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits alternate, average diameter (vertical) 3–4 µm. Vessel-ray pits with distinct borders, similar to intervessel pits. Helical thickenings present (rare and inconspicuous), only in narrow vessel elements, throughout the body of vessel elements. Other deposits present (both light coloured and dark brown).
Tracheids and fibres. Fibres of medium wall thickness. Average fibre length 750–1450 µm. Fibre pits mainly restricted to radial walls, simple to minutely bordered. Fibres exclusively septate, or septate and non-septate; evenly distributed.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma banded. Bands marginal (or seemingly marginal). Bands fine. Axial parenchyma apotracheal, or paratracheal. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse-in-aggregates. Paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric, or aliform. Aliform parenchyma of the lozenge type. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 3–8.
Rays. Rays 4–12 per tangential mm, exclusively uniseriate. Height of large rays up to 500 µm. Rays composed of two or more cell types (heterocellular). Heterocellular rays with procumbent, square and upright cells mixed throughout the ray. Some specimens with exclusively uniseriate rays, others also featuring biseriate rays.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals present, prismatic, located in ray cells. Crystal-containing ray cells upright and/or square or procumbent. Number of crystals per cell or chamber one, or more than one. Silica not observed.
Physical and chemical tests. Heartwood not fluorescent. Water extract not fluorescent; colour of water extract colourless to brown. Ethanol extract not fluorescent. Colour of ethanol extract colourless to brown. Froth test positive. Splinter burns to full ash. Ash white to grey.
Illustrations. • Macroscopic images. transverse (ca. 10x). radial (natural size). • Transverse section. • Tangential section. • Radial section. • Ray composition; crystals. rays composed of different size cells, some with prismatic crystals.
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’.
