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| Commercial timbers |
Nomenclature etc. THEACEAE. Syn.: S. crenata Korth, S. noronhae Reinw. ex Blume, S. superba. Trade and local names: puspa, seru (ID); medang gatal, samak (MY); Chinese guger tree (TW, US); laukya (MM); gaobei, huazi (CN); needlewood (GB); chilauni (IN); thalo, champa dong (TH). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Description based on 4 specimens. Tree. Geographic distribution: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indomalesia.
General. Heartwood basically brown, red (hardwood pinkish, reddish or greyish brown); without streaks. Sapwood colour similar to heartwood colour. Odour indistinct or absent. Density 0.45–0.92 g/cm³.
Vessels. Vessels present. Wood diffuse porous. Vessels exclusively solitary. Vessel outline angular. Two distinct vessel diameter classes absent. Average tangential vessel diameter 48–92–118 µm; diameter of vessels: medium. Average number of vessels/mm² (33–)56–88(–180); vessels per square millimetre numerous, or very numerous. Perforation plates scalariform, with 5–15 bars. Intervessel pits scalariform and opposite, average diameter (vertical) 10–13 µm, average diameter (vertical) large. Vessel-ray pits with reduced borders or apparently simple, similar to intervessel pits, horizontal to vertical, of the same type in adjacent elements, located throughout the ray. Helical thickenings present, in narrow and wide vessel elements, only in vessel element tails. Tyloses present, thinwalled. Other deposits not observed.
Tracheids and fibres. Vascular or vasicentric tracheids sporadic to absent. Fibres of medium wall thickness to very thick-walled. Fibre pits common in both radial and tangential walls, distinctly bordered. Helical thickenings absent. Fibres non-septate.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma present, not banded. Axial parenchyma apotracheal. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse and diffuse-in-aggregates. Paratracheal axial parenchyma scanty. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 4–12. Unlignified parenchyma absent. Some parenchyma cells with spiral thickenings.
Rays. Rays 6–10 per tangential mm, multiseriate (in some specimens nearly exclusively uniseriate), 1–3 cells wide. Height of large rays up to 500 µm. Rays composed of a single cell type (homocellular) (only uniseriate rays), or two or more cell types (heterocellular); homocellular ray cells procumbent. Heterocellular rays with square and upright cells restricted to marginal rows, mostly 1 marginal row of upright or square cells or mostly 2–4 marginal rows of upright or square cells.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals present, prismatic, located in axial parenchyma cells. Crystal-containing axial parenchyma cells chambered. Number of crystals per cell or chamber one. Sometimes two crystals in one chamber. 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.
Illustrations. • Macroscopic images. transverse (ca. 10x). radial (natural size). • Transverse section. • Tangential section - uniseriate rays. • Tangential section - multiseriate rays. • Radial section. • Perforation plates; crystals. scalariform perforation plates (lower part) and prismatic crystals in chambered axial parenchyma cells (upper part). • Spiralige Gefäßverdickungen. helical thickenings (SV) in vessel element tails. SV. SV.
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’.
