4696

5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers

Terminalia alata Heyne ex Roth

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

Nov. pl. sp.: 379 (1821).

Terminalia coriacea (Roxb.) Wight & Arn. (1834), Terminalia tomentosa (Roxb.) Wight & Arn. (1834), Terminalia macrocarpa Steud. (1841).

Indian laurel (En). Burma (Myanmar): taukyan. Cambodia: chhlik bay, chhlik snaêng, neang phaëk. Laos: suak 'mon, suak dam, suak kieng. Thailand: rok fa, hok fa, chueak (central, northern). Vietnam: b[aw]ng l[aw]ng kh[eef], c[af] lich, c[aar]m li[ee]n.

India, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China and Thailand.

Terminalia alata is a valuable and commercial source of timber and may have potential in other South-East Asian countries. The wood is used as terminalia e.g. for house building, furniture, tool handles, and for underwater purposes. When quarter-sawn, the wood yields attractive veneer. The bark is used medicinally against diarrhoea. Oxalic acid can be extracted from it. The bark and especially the fruit yield pyrogallol and catechol to dye and tan leather. The leaves are used as fodder in Nepal.

A medium-sized to fairly large deciduous tree up to 35 m tall, bole up to 200 cm in diameter, bark surface with deep vertical fissures and transverse cracks, dark grey to blackish, inner bark reddish; leaves oblong to ovate-oblong, 7—20 cm 4—10 cm, base obtuse, often oblique, apex rounded to acute, glabrous to tomentose, with 10—16 pairs of secondary veins, with a pair of stalked glands on the midrib near the base below, petiole 1—2 cm long; flowers in an axillary or terminal spike 6—15 cm long, calyx tube pubescent; fruit broadly ellipsoid, 4—6 cm 2.5—5 cm, 5-winged, wings coriaceous, glabrous, 1—2 cm broad. Terminalia alata is found in mixed deciduous forest, sometimes in dry dipterocarp forest, often on alluvial soils, up to 1000 m altitude. The density of the dark brown wood is about 1040 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content.

[163]Flore du Cambodge du Laos et du Viêtnam (various editors), 1960–. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.
[371]Letourneux, C., 1957. Tree planting practices in tropical Asia. FAO Forestry Development Paper No 11. FAO, Rome. 172 pp.
[383]Loc, P.K. & Hiep, N.T., 1989. Tannin-bearing Angiosperm species in the flora of Vietnam. In: Siemonsma, J.S. & Wulijarni-Soetjipto, N. (Editors): Plant resources of South-East Asia. Proceedings of the First PROSEA International Symposium, M
[392]Magini, E. & Tulstrup, N.P., 1955. Tree seed notes. I. Arid Areas II. Humid Tropics. FAO Forestry Development Paper 5. FAO, Rome. 354 pp.
[449]Nanakorn, W., 1985. The genus Terminalia (Combretaceae) in Thailand. Thai Forest Bulletin (Botany) 15: 59–107.
[648]Troup, R.S., 1921. Silviculture of Indian trees. 3 volumes. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
[666]van Vliet, G.J.C.M., 1979. Wood anatomy of the Combretaceae. Blumea 25: 141–223.
[746]Zentsch, W. & Kaul, M.L.H., 1968. Viability and germination behavior of Indian forest tree seeds. Beiträge zur Tropischen und Subtropischen Landwirtschaft und Tropenveterinärmedizin 6(3): 213–219.

M.S.M. Sosef

Sosef, M.S.M., 1995. Terminalia alata Heyne ex Roth. In: Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Soerianegara, I. and Wong, W.C. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea