3683

5(1): Timber trees; Major commercial timbers

Paraserianthes falcataria (L.) Nielsen

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Paraserianthes in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Bull. Mus. Natn. Hist. Nat., 4e sér., sect. B, Adansonia 5: 327 (1983).

Albizia moluccana Miq. (1855), Albizia falcata sensu Backer (1908), Albizia falcataria (L.) Fosberg (1965).

Brunei: puah. Indonesia: jeungjing (general), sengon laut (Java), sika (Moluccas). Malaysia: batai (Peninsular, Sabah), kayu machis (Sarawak). Papua New Guinea: white albizia. Philippines: Moluccan sau, falcata.

The Moluccas, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands. Paraserianthes falcataria is widely planted throughout the tropics.

The timber is used as batai (as given for the genus). In New Guinea native people make various items, including shields, from this wood. Paraserianthes falcataria is planted as an ornamental and shade tree, for reforestation and afforestation or for firewood production. The bark yields kino and has tanning properties and it is also used for packing. The leaves are used to feed chickens and goats.

A medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 40 m tall, bole branchless for up to 20 m and up to 100 cm or sometimes more in diameter; leaves up to 40 cm long, with (4—)8—15 pairs of pinnae, each pinna with (8—)15—25 leaflets, leaflets oblong-falcate, (2—)3—6 mm broad; flowers in paniculate racemes, corolla sericeous all over; pod winged along the ventral suture, puberulous but glabrescent. Paraserianthes falcataria has three subspecies. Subsp. falcataria occurs in the Moluccas and New Guinea, subsp. solomonensis Nielsen in the Solomon Islands, and subsp. fulva (Lane-Poole) Nielsen (synonyms: Albizia fulva Lane-Poole and Albizia eymae Fosberg) in the mountains of New Guinea; the latter subspecies has densely puberulous to tomentose pods and a woolly leaf-rachis. Paraserianthes falcataria occurs in primary but more often in secondary forest and on river flood terraces, sometimes in beach forest and regrowth from sea-level up to 2300 m altitude. The density of the wood is (230—)300—500 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

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J.P. Rojo

Rojo, J.P., 1993. Paraserianthes falcataria (L.) Nielsen. In: Soerianegara, I. and Lemmens, R.H.M.J. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 5(1): Timber trees; Major commercial timbers. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea