4803

5(3): Timber trees; Lesser-known timbers

Agrostistachys Dalzell

Hooker's Journ. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 2: 41 (1850).

EUPHORBIACEAE

x = unknown; 2n = unknown

Malaysia: jejulong, julong-julong (Peninsular), kayu garang (Sabah).

Agrostistachys comprises about 8 species and occurs in Sri Lanka, India, Burma (Myanmar) and Indo-China towards Thailand and the Malesian region. The 4 species found in the latter area are distributed as follows: 3 in Peninsular Malaysia, 1 in Sumatra, 3 in Borneo, 2 in the Philippines, and 1 in Papua New Guinea.

The wood of Agrostistachys has been used for walking sticks, fence poles and carrying baskets. It is suitable for the production of pulp and yields a fairly good fuelwood. The logs are also suitable for mushroom cultivation.
The large leaves are used for roofing, thatching and wrapping. The fibrous bark can be used to make rope. The resin on the terminal bud is used to secure knife blades in their handles. The gum of A. borneensis used to be used to varnish sheaths and handles of krises.

The wood of Agrostistachys is used on a local scale only.

Agrostistachys yields a medium-weight to heavy hardwood with a density of 685-940 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood brown with a rose-pink tinge (A. borneensis) or pale yellow (A. gaudichaudii), not clearly differentiated from the sapwood; grain straight; texture fine and even. Growth rings mostly indistinct, sometimes delimited by a band of marginal parenchyma; vessels very small, mostly in radial multiples of 2-4, sometimes more; parenchyma sparse, apotracheal occasionally in marginal or seemingly marginal bands, visible to the naked eye, and diffuse, tending to diffuse-in-aggregates, visible only with a hand lens; rays very fine to moderately fine, visible only with a hand lens; ripple marks absent.
There is no information on the durability of this wood, but specimens in the wood collection of the Forest Research Institute Malaysia have not been attacked by fungi or borers.
See also the table on microscopic wood anatomy.

Dioecious, virtually glabrous, small trees up to 15 m tall; bole up to 25 cm in diameter, without buttresses; bark surface smooth; crown narrow and conical to domed and open. Terminal bud with a clear, inflammable, resinous coat. Leaves arranged spirally, in a tight terminal cluster, simple, oblanceolate to cuneate-obovate, up to 60 cm long, entire to dentate, without glands; stipules free, persistent or caducous. Flowers small, on axillary, single or grouped, short to elongate, bracteate spikes. Male flowers in clusters within each bract; calyx splitting into 2-5-segments; petals 5-8; disk composed of 5 glands; stamens (8-)10(-13), anther cells pendulous. Female flowers solitary; sepals 5; petals 5; ovary superior, 3-locular with a single ovule per cell, style entire or bifid. Fruit a crustaceous capsule seated on the blackened disk and the persistent, recurved sepals. Seed smooth.
Agrostistachys develops according to Corner's architectural tree model, characterized by the vegetative growth of a single meristem producing an unbranched axis on which the inflorescences are borne laterally.

A. borneensis occurs locally gregarious in evergreen, lowland and lower montane, sometimes mossy forest, on hillsides and ridge tops, up to 1050 m altitude. It is found in kerangas, dipterocarp-fagaceous forest, low dipterocarp forest and swamp forest. A. gaudichaudii is found in lowland, evergreen forest, mainly on alluvial plains, up to 200 m altitude. Soil types include sandstone, yellow sandy clay, clay loam, and rarely white sand and limestone. Both species are understorey trees.

Agrostistachys can be propagated from seed, which has a high germination percentage. Natural regeneration is generally good.

As the two timber-yielding species are fairly common and their utilization is very restricted, the risk of genetic erosion is probably small.

The utilization of Agrostistachys timber is unlikely to increase, since the bole is usually small. The wood may gain some importance for the production of pulp and chipboards, and as a fuelwood.

[26]Airy Shaw, H.K., 1972. The Euphorbiaceae of Siam. Kew Bulletin 26: 191-363.
[28]Airy Shaw, H.K., 1975. The Euphorbiaceae of Borneo. Kew Bulletin Additional Series VIII. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London. 245 pp.
[32]Airy Shaw, H.K., 1980. The Euphorbiaceae of New Guinea. Kew Bulletin Additional Series VIII. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London. 243 pp.
[33]Airy Shaw, H.K., 1981. An alphabetical enumeration of the Euphorbiaceae of the Philippine islands. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 56 pp.
[34]Airy Shaw, H.K., 1981. The Euphorbiaceae of Sumatra. Kew Bulletin 36: 239-374.
[81]Balakrishnan, N.P., 1970. Studies in Indian Euphorbiaceae - IV. The genus Agrostistachys Dalz. in India, Burma and Ceylon. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 67: 299-306.
[162]Burgess, P.F., 1966. Timbers of Sabah. Sabah Forest Records No 6. Forest Department, Sabah, Sandakan. xviii + 501 pp.
[163]Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd edition. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur. Vol. 1 (A-H) pp. 1-1240. Vol. 2 (I-Z) pp. 1241-2444.
[209]Corner, E.J.H., 1988. Wayside trees of Malaya. 3rd edition. 2 volumes. The Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur. 774 pp.
[267]Desch, H.E., 1941-1954. Manual of Malayan timbers. Malayan Forest Records No 15. 2 volumes. Malaya Publishing House Ltd., Singapore. 762 pp.
[402]Hallé, F., Oldeman, R.A.A. & Tomlinson, P.B., 1978. Tropical trees and forests - an architectural analysis. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. 441 pp.
[543]Keng, H., 1990. The concise flora of Singapore. Gymnosperms and dicotyledons. Singapore University Press, Singapore. 222 pp.
[974]Salvosa, F.M., 1963. Lexicon of Philippine trees. Bulletin No 1. Forest Products Research Institute, College, Laguna. 136 pp.
[834]Nguyen Nghia Thin, 1989. Useful plants of Euphorbiaceae in flora of Vietnam. Forestry Revue, Hanoi 1989: 29-30.
[835]Nguyen Nghia Thin, 1995. Euphorbiaceae of Vietnam. Agriculture Publishing House, Hanoi. 50 pp.
[1195]Webster, G.L., 1994. Synopsis of the genera and suprageneric taxa of Euphorbiaceae. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 81: 33-144.
[1221]Whitmore, T.C. & Ng, F.S.P. (Editors), 1972-1989. Tree flora of Malaya. A manual for foresters. 4 volumes. Malayan Forest Records No 26. Longman Malaysia Sdn. Berhad, Kuala Lumpur & Petaling Jaya.
[1242]Wong, T.M., 1982. A dictionary of Malaysian timbers. Malayan Forest Records No 30. Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong. 259 pp.

Nguyen Nghia Thin

Agrostistachys borneensis
Agrostistachys gaudichaudii

Thin, N.N., 1998. Agrostistachys Dalzell. In: Sosef, M.S.M., Hong, L.T. and Prawirohatmodjo, S. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 5(3): Timber trees; Lesser-known timbers. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea

The following species in this genus are important in this commodity group and are treated separatedly in this database:
Agrostistachys borneensis
Agrostistachys gaudichaudii