4289

5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers

Koordersiodendron Engl.

Koord., Versl. Minahasa, Meded. 's-Lands Plantentuin 19: 410 (1898).

ANACARDIACEAE

x = unknown; 2n = unknown

Trade groups Ranggu: medium-weight hardwood, a single species, Koordersiodendron pinnatum (Blanco) Merr., Bull. For. Bur. 1: 33 (1903), synonyms: Koordersiodendron celebicum Engl. (1898), Lannea speciosa (Blume) Engl. ex Perk. (1904), Koordersiodendron papuanum Kaneh. & Hatus. (1942).

Ranggu. Indonesia: tabu hitam (Kalimantan), kayu bugis, bugis (Sulawesi), grepau (Irian Jaya). Philippines: amugis (general), dangila (Tagalog), karogkog (Bikol).

Koordersiodendron consists of a single species and is widely distributed throughout the Philippines, the northern part of Borneo, Sulawesi, the Moluccas and the northern part of Irian Jaya.

Ranggu timber is excellent for flooring owing to its uniform dark red colour, and is also used for construction under cover (posts, beams, joists, rafters, interior finish), boat and cart construction, furniture, cabinet making and turnery. The wood is suitable for the manufacture of wood-wool board.
The gum from the bark has been used in local medicine.

In Sabah, ranggu was mainly used locally because it had more defects than other timber species from Sabah and the green logs, which sink in water, are difficult to transport. However, the present export is considerable: in 1987 12 500 m³ of logs with a value of US$ 700 000, and in 1992 8000 m³ (5% as sawn timber, 95% as logs) with a total value of US$ 580 000 (US$ 180/m³ for sawn timber, US$ 67/m³ for logs). Japan imports limited amounts of ranggu, mainly from Sabah and Irian Jaya.

Ranggu is a medium-weight hardwood. The heartwood is pale pinkish-brown, reddish-brown to dark red-brown, often with black streaks, well demarcated from the greyish-brown or pale pinkish sapwood. The density is (410—)530—915(—1020) kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. The grain is usually interlocked, sometimes straight, occasionally wavy or curly, texture moderately fine. The wood is glossy, and the taste and odour are not perceptible.
Tests of samples of green wood from the Philippines, Sabah and Irian Jaya showed the following mechanical properties: the modulus of rupture 66—86.5 N/mm², modulus of elasticity 10 625—15 300 N/mm², compression parallel to grain 31—47 N/mm², compression perpendicular to grain about 9.5 N/mm², shear 9—15.5 N/mm², cleavage about 80.5 N/mm radial and 92 N/mm tangential, Janka side hardness 3400—7120 N and Janka end hardness 3660—6300 N. A test of wood from Sabah showed the following figures at 17% moisture content: modulus of elasticity 17 030 N/mm², compression parallel to grain 58 N/mm², shear 13.5 N/mm², cleavage 76 N/mm radial and 87 N/mm tangential, Janka side hardness 7480 N and Janka end hardness 6865 N. See also the table on wood properties.
The rates of shrinkage are moderately high to high: from green to 15% moisture content 1.7% radial and 2.6% tangential, from green to 12% moisture content 3.1—5.0% radial and 5.6—8.0% tangential. Ranggu is difficult to season because of its distinct tendency to cup and warp, whereas splitting and checking are normally observed when seasoning 25 mm stock. Air drying prior to kiln drying is recommended. Material of 50 mm and thicker is stable in service when properly dried.
Ranggu is rather difficult to saw and causes circular saws to heat up. A band saw rather than a circular blade is recommended for ripping. In planing, a 30° cutting angle is suitable for back-sawn material, but 20° for quarter-sawn stock. Boring and mortising result in a good finish, but support is usually needed at the exit faces. Preboring is essential for nailing. Stock finishes and polishes well, although torn grain is common on quartered faces. The wood has a moderate blunting effect on tools. It is probably not suitable for veneer, because it is too heavy and liable to defects when peeled.
Ranggu is rated as non-durable to moderately durable. It is easily attacked by termites, pinhole borers and probably also marine borers. It is moderately susceptible to Lyctus beetles. Due to tyloses, the heartwood is extremely resistant and the sapwood is moderately resistant to preservative treatment. The wearing properties of ranggu are excellent.
The wood contains 49.3% cellulose, 26.9% lignin, 16.7% pentosan and 1.3% ash. The solubility in alcohol-benzene is 4.9%.

A large, evergreen tree up to 50 m tall; bole cylindrical, branchless for up to 25(—30) m, up to 80(—200) cm in diameter, sometimes with buttresses up to 2 m high; bark surface usually deeply fissured, dark brown or black, inner bark laminated, fibrous, pink to red, with a little colourless exudate; crown dense and dark green. Leaves arranged spirally, crowded at the end of twigs, imparipinnate, 50—80 cm long, with (6—)10—16 pairs of leaflets, rachis hairy, exstipulate; leaflets subopposite, ovate-oblong to narrowly oblong, 3—20 cm 1.5—5.5 cm, entire, slightly asymmetrical at base, acuminate, with 10—24 pairs of usually bright red secondary veins, glossy green above, yellowish-green below, glabrescent, with short petiolule, without domatia. Flowers in an axillary panicle up to 50 cm long, bisexual, actinomorphic, 5-merous, small, white or yellowish-green; sepals united at base, the lobes 0.7—1 mm long; petals free, imbricate, 2—3 mm long; stamens 10, glabrous, anthers subglobose, connective protruding slightly beyond the thecae; ovary superior, sessile, subglobose, deeply longitudinally 5-furrowed, densely hairy, 5-celled, usually with one fertile cell and one ovule per cell, styles 5, short; disk intrastaminal, round and flat, 10-notched. Fruit a 1(—3)-celled drupe, broadly ellipsoid, 2.5—4 cm long, obtuse at both ends, yellowish when ripe, with cartilaginous endocarp. Seed ellipsoid, with the testa free from the endocarp; cotyledons free, plano-convex. Seedling with epigeal, cryptocotylar germination; cotyledons succulent, enclosed by the persistent, dark brown, cracking and fibrous fruit wall; first 2 leaves opposite and compound, subsequent leaves arranged spirally.

— Macroscopic characters:
Heartwood pale pinkish-brown to dark red-brown, often with fine dark streaks, fairly distinctly demarcated from the greyish-brown or pale pinkish sapwood. Grain often slightly interlocked, sometimes straight and occasionally wavy. Texture rather fine and even; wood lustrous. Growth rings absent or indistinct, occasionally distinct; vessels indistinct to barely visible to the naked eye, tyloses abundant; vasicentric parenchyma visible with a lens, rays not distinct to the naked eye; ripple marks absent.
— Microscopic characters:
Growth rings, when present, marked by differences in fibre wall thickness. Vessels diffuse, 3—8/mm², solitary, occasionally in radial multiples of 2—3 or in small clusters of 3—5, round, rarely oval, tangential diameter 90—250 µm; perforations simple; intervessel pits alternate, bordered, rounded to polygonal, 10—15 µm; vessel-ray and vessel-parenchyma pits coarse and of various shapes, with strongly reduced borders to almost simple; helical thickenings absent; tyloses abundant. Fibres 620—1600 µm long, septate, thin-walled to moderately thick-walled (walls 4—6(—10) µm thick), with minutely bordered pits confined to the radial walls. Parenchyma sparse paratracheal, vasicentric, mostly in 1—2-celled sheaths to the vessels, in 3—5-celled strands. Rays 4—12/mm, 1—3(—5)-seriate, up to 0.8 mm high, heterocellular with 1—3 rows of upright cells and/or square marginal cells (Kribs type heterogeneous II and III). Prismatic crystals rare in chambered axial parenchyma cells, common in chambered or enlarged marginal ray parenchyma cells; ray and parenchyma cells often with red or brown deposits. Silica absent. Gum ducts present in wide, fusiform rays. All elements non-storied.

During germination the taproot and hypocotyl emerge from one pole of the fruit; the cotyledonary petioles elongated and carry the fruit away from the plumule. The taproot is long and slender. After the first two leaves have developed, a resting stage follows.
In the dry season the tree crown becomes lighter, but never loses all foliage.
In Sabah, the mean annual diameter increment of ranggu is 0.2—0.9 cm. The fruits are dispersed by animals, notably hornbills, green pigeons and primates, which feed on the pulp.

Koordersiodendron belongs to the tribe Spondiadeae and seems most closely related to Pegia or Spondias. The genus is characterized by the many leaflets without domatia, the 10 stamens and the 5-celled ovary with incompletely connate cells. In Sarawak, the vernacular name ranggu is also used for Melia excelsa Jack.

Ranggu occurs in humid evergreen lowland forest, but in the Philippines it is reported to be found mainly on the fringes of lowland forest, from near the beach up to 450(—800) m altitude. It is widespread but occurs scattered and almost nowhere abundant. It is occasionally found in inundated locations. It prefers loamy soils. On the island of Seram (the Moluccas), ranggu occurs as an emergent tree over 45 m tall, with an average of 3.3 trees over 50 cm diameter at breast height per ha in a forest type dominated by Canarium vulgare Leenh. In Irian Jaya, it is found on forest fringes along the beach and associated with Celtis philippensis Blanco, Vitex quinata (Lour.) F.N. Williams, Canarium asperum Benth. and Trichadenia philippinensis Merr. on well-drained soils containing gravel and boulders.

Information available on propagation from seed indicates that germination in the nursery is fair. Wildlings transferred to the nursery showed 90% survival and a height increment of 34 cm during the first 6 months in the nursery. Compared with the original population from which they came from, the wildlings had a shorter taproot and more lateral roots, which make them better, more sturdy planting stock than the seedlings under the mother tree.

In Sabah a longhorn beetle attacks living trees and causes serious defects of the timber.

As the green logs sink in water (density about 1120 kg/m³ at an estimated moisture content of 60—80%), they cannot be transported by river. Large trees are often hollow.

In South Sulawesi, the estimated timber volume of a particular forest is 13.8 m³/ha for ranggu trees over 50 cm in diameter. In the Samarinda forest in East Kalimantan, this parameter ranges from 2.0—8.8 m³/ha. In Seram, the Moluccas, ranggu makes up 5% of the total basal area in natural forest.

Considering its wide distribution, ranggu does not seem in danger of genetic erosion at present.

The wood has an attractive dark-red colour, but there are some problems in converting the timber, as sawing is not very easy and the tools used are easily blunted. As extremely little is known about the silviculture of ranggu, it is doubtful whether the importance of the wood will increase in the future.

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E. Boer (general part), J.W. Hildebrand (general part), D.S. Alonzo (properties), J.M. Fundter (wood anatomy)

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