4870

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

Antidesma L.

Sp. pl. 2: 1027 (1753); Gen. pl., ed. 5: 451 (1754).

EUPHORBIACEAE

x = 13; A. bunius: n = 117; A. bunius, A. ghaesembilla: 2n = 26

Indonesia: buni (Indonesian), ki huni (Sundanese), wuni (Javanese). Philippines: bignai (Filipino). Burma (Myanmar): kinbalin. Laos: 'm[ax]o², 's[oox]m². Thailand: mao, mamao, sommao. Vietnam: ch[of]i m[of]i v[of] d[ow].

Antidesma comprises about 200 species distributed in the Old World tropics. Only about 10 occur in tropical Africa and Madagascar, the remainder are found in Asia with a few in tropical Australia and the Pacific.

The wood of Antidesma is used for temporary construction, poles, posts, fence posts and small objects like walking-sticks and tool handles. Wood chips, mixed with those of other species, have been used successfully to manufacture hardboard. The hard but small-sized wood is also used for fuel, and A. ghaesembilla is well-known in this respect in India.
A. bunius is a comparatively well-known fruit tree, occasionally also applied in reforestation projects. Several other species, e.g. A. ghaesembilla and A. stipulare, bear edible fruits as well. The young leaves of some species are sour and eaten in salads and used to flavour fish or meat stew, or may serve as a substitute for vinegar. The bark and leaves of some species contain an alkaloid and are applied medicinally, e.g. to relieve fever and against smallpox and body swellings, but are also reported as poisonous.

The use of Antidesma wood is limited and on a local scale only because most trees are small.

Antidesma yields a medium-weight to heavy hardwood with a density of 580-925 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood purple-red-brown or grey-brown with a purple-red tinge, not clearly differentiated from the sapwood; grain straight; texture fine and even. Growth rings indistinct; vessels very small to moderately small, usually in radial multiples of 2-4, occasionally with tyloses; parenchyma apotracheal diffuse, difficult to see even with a hand lens; rays extremely fine to medium-sized; ripple marks absent.
A. ghaesembilla is siliceous and may be difficult to work. The wood is moderately hard to hard and strong. It is considered only moderately durable to non-durable; it is resistant to dry-wood termites, but not resistant to fungi. The sapwood is non-susceptible to Lyctus.
The gross energy value of the wood of A. ghaesembilla is 18 615-19 630 kJ/kg.
See also the table on microscopic wood anatomy.

Dioecious shrubs or small to occasionally medium-sized trees up to 20(-28) m tall; bole fairly straight in larger trees, up to 60 cm in diameter, without buttresses. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, mostly short-petioled; stipules caducous or persistent. Flowers in an axillary or terminal or sometimes cauliflorous simple or paniculate spike or raceme, unisexual, small, solitary in the axil of bracts; calyx 3-5-toothed or -lobed with imbricate lobes; petals absent. Male flower with a disk of free or fused glands; stamens 2-5(-10); pistillode small or absent. Female flower with an annular disk; ovary superior, 1(-2)-locular with 2 ovules in each cell, styles 3(-5), terminal or lateral. Fruit drupaceous, with a single 1-seeded carpel, indehiscent, red or black; calyx persistent. Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons emergent, leafy; hypocotyl elongated; first few leaves arranged spirally, subsequent ones distichous, conduplicate.
In the Philippines a mean annual diameter increment of 2.0 cm has been recorded for A. ghaesembilla for the diameter class 10-20 cm. Vesicular-arbuscular endotrophic mycorrhizae have been observed in A. ghaesembilla. In Java most of the timber-yielding species can be found flowering throughout the year. Observations of birds eating the fruit suggest that they disperse the seeds.
Some authors separate Antidesma from the Euphorbiaceae and place it in a separate family, the Stilaginaceae. It is often difficult to identify the individual species of Antidesma.

Timber-yielding Antidesma species are often found in the understorey of primary or secondary, lowland to montane rain forest, up to 1800 m altitude. They grow on a wide variety of soils including alluvial flats, clayey soils, peaty soils, volcanic soils, podzols and limestone. Forest types include dry-land forest, swamp forest, beach forest and the inner edge of mangrove forest. A. ghaesembilla is locally common and also occurs in more open locations like forest edges and along rivers, often together with Acacia spp., on sandy or badly eroded rocky soils, or it appears as one of the first fire-resistant trees in grassland.

Antidesma can be propagated by seed; the fruit-producing trees are also propagated by stem cuttings, marcotting, budding, and grafting. Depulped and dried fruits of A. bunius may be stored for 2-5 years in airtight containers without a serious decrease in seed viability. There are about 28 000 dry seeds/kg for A. bunius; these seeds need about 1 month of after-ripening and can then be sown under shade without pretreatment. Fresh seeds, however, need a pretreatment with sulphuric acid for 15 minutes followed by soaking in water for 24 hours. The viability of Antidesma seeds is very variable, as for example in A. bunius (3-70%) and in A. neurocarpum (18-84%). Seeds of A. bunius germinate in 30-60 days, fruits of A. cuspidatum in 12-59 days and seeds of A. neurocarpum in 35-96 days. A. bunius has been successfully used in teak plantations as a shade-tolerant weed-suppressing species which produces abundant litter. On poor sites, however, its growth is minimal. When planted in "alang-alang"" (Imperata cylindrica (L.) Raeuschel) grasslands in the Philippines, A. ghaesembilla showed 85% survival after 4 months, but growth was seriously impeded, so it is not recommended for planting in such conditions.

Except for the cultivated A. bunius, there are no records of ex situ conservation of Antidesma. The species that have a limited distribution may easily become endangered by destruction of the habitat.

As trees are small the use of Antidesma wood is unlikely to increase, except perhaps if it proves to be suitable for the manufacture of wood-based panels.

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[150]Brown, W.H., 1951-1957. Useful plants of the Philippines. Reprint of the 1941-1943 edition. 3 volumes. Technical Bulletin 10. Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Bureau of Printing, Manila. Vol. 1(1951) 590 pp., Vol. 2 (1954) 513 pp., Vol. 3 (1957) 507 pp.
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E.N. Sambas (general part), M.S.M. Sosef (selection of species)

Antidesma bunius
Antidesma coriaceum
Antidesma cuspidatum
Antidesma ghaesembilla
Antidesma leucocladon
Antidesma moluccanum
Antidesma neurocarpum
Antidesma novoguineense
Antidesma olivaceum
Antidesma sphaerocarpum
Antidesma stipulare
Antidesma tetradum
Antidesma thwaitesianum

Sambas, E.N. & Sosef, M.S.M., 1998. Antidesma L.. 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:
Antidesma bunius
Antidesma coriaceum
Antidesma cuspidatum
Antidesma ghaesembilla
Antidesma leucocladon
Antidesma moluccanum
Antidesma neurocarpum
Antidesma novoguineense
Antidesma olivaceum
Antidesma sphaerocarpum
Antidesma stipulare
Antidesma tetradum
Antidesma thwaitesianum