4737

5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers

Toona ciliata M.J. Roemer

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

Fam. nat. syn. monogr. 1: 139 (1846).

Cedrela toona Roxb. ex Rottler & Willd. (1803), Toona australis Harms (1896), Toona microcarpa (C.DC.) Harms (1896), Toona ternatensis (Miq.) Bahadur (1988).

Indian mahogany, Indian toon, Burma toon, Australian toon, Australian red cedar (general). Indonesia: suren kapar, suren mal (Java), malapoga (Sulawesi), kukoru (Moluccas). Malaysia: surian limpaga, ranggoh (Sabah). Philippines: danupra (Iloko). Burma (Myanmar): taung-tama, taw thamgo, thit kador. Laos: mai-yom-horm. Thailand: yom-hom (general).

Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, southern China, Indo-China, Thailand, throughout Malesia and northern Australia. The tree is nowadays much cultivated for its timber and as an ornamental or wayside tree throughout the tropics.

The timber is used in house and ship building, for high grade furniture, carvings, tea chests and boxes, musical instruments and pencils. The flowers yield a red or yellow dye which is used to colour silk. Various parts of the plant, but especially the bark, are used medicinally, e.g. as astringent and tonic, to treat dysentery and to heal wounds.

A medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 35(—50) m tall, with bole branchless for up to 24 m and up to 70(—150) cm in diameter, buttressed up to 3.5 m high or without buttresses, bark surface usually fissured and flaky, greyish-white to reddish-brown, bark with aromatic odour when cut; leaflets entire, glabrescent above; petal margins, ovary and disk hairy, style glabrous; columella of fruit concave with apical scarring, fruit valves smooth to minutely lenticellate; seed winged at both ends, wings unequal. Toona ciliata occurs in primary and secondary rain forest, often along rivers and in valleys, up to 1500 m altitude, rarely higher. The density of the wood is 330—600 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

[38]Bahadur, K.N., 1988. Monograph on the genus Toona (Meliaceae). Bishen Sing Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehra Dun. 251 pp.
[111]CTFT, 1962. Cedrela odorata et Toona ciliata – caractFres sylvicoles et mTthodes de plantation [Cedrela odorata and Toona ciliata – silvicultural characteristics and plantation methods]. Bois et ForOts des Tropiques 81: 29–34.
[146]Edmonds, J.M., 1993. The potential value of Toona species (Meliaceae) as multipurpose and plantation trees in Southeast Asia. Commonwealth Forestry Review 72(3): 181–186.
[155]Evans, J., 1982. Plantation forestry in the tropics. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 472 pp.
[195]Gibson, I.A.S., 1975. Diseases of forest trees widely planted as exotics in the tropics and southern hemisphere. Part I. Important members of the Myrtaceae, Leguminosae, Verbenaceae and Meliaceae. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew & Commonwealth Forestry Institute, University of Oxford. 51 pp.
[208]Grijpma, P., 1976. Resistance of Meliaceae against the shoot borer Hypsipyla with particular reference to Toona ciliata M.J. Roem. var. australis (F. v. Muell.) C.DC. In: Burley, J. & Styles, B.T. (Editors): Tropical trees. Variation, breed
[209]Grijpma, P. & Roberts, S.C., 1976. Biological and chemical screening for the basis of resistance of Toona ciliata M.J. Roem. var. australis. In: Whitmore, J.L. (Editor): Studies on the shoot borer Hypsipyla grandella (Zeller) Lep. Pyralidae
[289]Keating, W.G. & Bolza, 1982. Characteristics, properties and uses of timbers. Vol. 1. South-East Asia, northern Australia and the Pacific. Inkata Press Proprietary Ltd., Melbourne, Sydney & London. 362 pp.
[348]Lamprecht, H., 1989. Silviculture in the tropics; tropical forest ecosystems and their tree species, possibilities and methods for their long-term utilization. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, Eschborn. 296 pp
[371]Letourneux, C., 1957. Tree planting practices in tropical Asia. FAO Forestry Development Paper No 11. FAO, Rome. 172 pp.
[487]Pearson, R.S. & Brown, H.P., 1932. Commercial timbers of India. Their distribution, supplies, anatomical structure, physical and mechanical properties and uses. 2 Volumes. Government of India, Central Publication Branch, Calcutta. x + 1150 p
[521]Rai, S.N., 1985. Notes on nursery and regeneration technique of some species occurring in southern tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of Karnataka (India) part II. Indian Forester 111(8): 645–657.
[526]Research Institute of Wood Industry, 1988. Identification, properties and uses of some Southeast Asian woods. Chinese Academy of Forestry, Wan Shou Shan, Beijing & International Tropical Timber Organization, Yokohama. 201 pp.
[679]von Meyenfeldt, C.F.W.M. et al., 1978. Restoration of devastated inland forests in South Vietnam. Volume III: List of tree species. Agricultural University Wageningen. 219 pp.
[707]Wick, H.L. & Burgan, R.E., 1970. A spacing trial in Australian toon – an interim report. USDA Forest Service Research Note PSW-220. Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Berkeley. 3 pp.
[719]Womersley, J.S. & McAdam, J.B., 1957. The forests and forest conditions in the territories of Papua and New Guinea. Papua New Guinea Forest Service. Reprint of 1975. The Wilke Group, Zillmere. 62 pp.

R.H.M.J. Lemmens

Lemmens, R.H.M.J., 1995. Toona ciliata M.J. Roemer. 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