4704

5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers

Terminalia catappa L.

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

Syst nat. ed. 12, 2: 674 (1767); Mant. pl.: 128 (1767).

Terminalia moluccana Lamk (1783), Terminalia procera Roxb. (1832), Terminalia mauritiana Blanco (1845).

Indian almond, Singapore almond (En). Badamier (Fr). Brunei: telisai. Indonesia: ketapang (general). Malaysia: jelawai ketapang (Peninsular, Sarawak), telisai (Sarawak, Sabah). Papua New Guinea: reddish-brown terminalia (Pidgin). Philippines: talisai (Filipino), almendras (Sp), dalinsi (Bikol). Cambodia: châmbâk barang, kapang, pareang prang. Laos: hu kwang, sômz moox dông, 'hou kouang. Burma (Myanmar): badan. Thailand: hukwang (central). Vietnam: b[af]ng (general), b[af]ng nh[os]c (Bên Tre), mo² c[uws]a (Saigon).

Native from India through Indo-China and Thailand, throughout the Malesian area, to northern Australia and Polynesia; very widely planted throughout the tropics.

The wood is used, in Papua New Guinea as red-brown terminalia, e.g. for house and boat construction, furniture and cabinet-making. Probably more important are the bark and leaves which are used for tanning leather and for dyeing cloth, and making ink; sometimes the roots and green fruits are used for the same purposes. The seed is edible and tasty and contains an oil which is used medicinally as a substitute for true almond oil. The flesh of the fruit is edible but not tasty. The trees are very commonly applied as shade trees in gardens and along roads. The leaves cause sudorific action and are applied to rheumatic joints. The tannin from leaves and bark is used as an astringent in dysentery and thrush, is regarded as diuretic and cardiotonic, and is applied externally on skin eruptions. In the Philippines, a decoction of the leaves is employed as a vermifuge. In Papua New Guinea crushed flowers are mixed with water and the mixture is drunk to induce sterility.

A medium-sized evergreen or briefly deciduous tree up to 25(—40) m tall, bole up to 150 cm in diameter, often with buttresses up to 3 m high, bark surface shallowly fissured and slightly flaky, grey to dark grey-brown, inner bark pinkish-brown; leaves usually obovate, sometimes more or less elliptical, 8—25(—38) cm 5—14(—19) cm, subcordate at base, sometimes hairy below, with (6—)8—12 pairs of secondary veins, petiole 4—15(—20) mm long; flowers in an axillary spike 8—16 cm long, calyx tube sericeous or glabrous; fruit ovoid or ellipsoid, 3.5—8 cm 2—5.5 cm, with a wing that is inconspicuous or rigid and about 2 mm broad. Terminalia catappa occurs along sandy or rocky beaches or on tidal river banks, and is a typical element of Barringtonia formations. The density of the red-brown wood is 450—720 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

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M.S.M. Sosef

Sosef, M.S.M., 1995. Terminalia catappa L.. 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