4945

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

Baccaurea Lour.

Fl. cochinch.: 641, 661 (1790).

EUPHORBIACEAE

x = 13; B. ramiflora: n = 13, 13 + 1B

Tampoi (trade name). Indonesia: kepundung, menteng, tampui (general). Malaysia: tampoi (general), kunau kunau (Sabah), rambai hutan (Peninsular, Sabah). Philippines: dilak. Burma (Myanmar): kanaso, mai-mak-hpa. Laos: fai. Thailand: mafai, rambai, somfai. Vietnam: d[aa]u da.

Baccaurea comprises about 55 species occurring from India to Indo-China, southern China, the Andaman Islands, Thailand, throughout the Malesian region (except for the Lesser Sunda Islands) towards the Pacific Islands (east to Fiji, Tahiti and Samoa). Some 40 species are found within Malesia and are distributed as follows: Peninsular Malaysia 20 species, Sumatra 22, Java 5, Borneo 2, the Philippines c. 3, Sulawesi c. 5, the Moluccas c. 4 and New Guinea c. 4.

The wood of Baccaurea is used mainly for poles in native house construction, boat building, wharf piling, furniture (general-utility purposes) and boxes. Additionally, it is suitable for general light construction under cover such as posts, beams, joists and rafters, carving, and for general-utility plywood.
Four Baccaurea species are frequently cultivated for their generally sour-tasting fruits: B. dulcis, B. motleyana, B. racemosa and B. ramiflora. Most other species have edible, but less tasty fruits. Baccaurea species are also considered good support trees for rattan cultivation. The cultivated species are used as shade and avenue trees. The bark of a few species is used, along with other ingredients, to colour silk yellow, red or mauve. The bark is also applied medicinally to treat skin diseases and inflammation of the eyes.

As the supply of Baccaurea timber is very limited, the wood is utilized on a local scale only.

Baccaurea yields a medium-weight to heavy hardwood with a density of 630-950 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood yellowish-brown, darkening to brown with an orange-yellow or purple-red tinge, not clearly differentiated from the sapwood; grain straight or interlocked; texture moderately fine and uneven due to wide rays; wood with slight silver grain on quarter-sawn surface. Growth rings indistinct, sometimes suggested by darker coloured tissue; vessels moderately small to medium-sized, angular, solitary and in radial multiples of 2-4(-more), tyloses sparse; parenchyma abundant, apotracheal diffuse-in-aggregates; rays of 2 kinds, very fine or medium-sized to moderately broad; ripple marks absent.
Shrinkage is moderate and the wood seasons moderately slowly without serious degrade. The wood is moderately hard and moderately strong. It is reputed to be durable and can be treated with preservatives.
The leaves of B. angulata Merr. and possibly other species accumulate aluminium, rendering them pale when dried.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.

Evergreen, dioecious, small to medium-sized trees up to 30(-40) m tall; bole straight to rather poorly shaped and/or forked, branchless for up to 20 m, up to 70 cm in diameter, often with small buttresses or prominently fluted; bark very thin, surface shallowly finely dippled or with minute papery scales, red to orange-brown, inner bark softly fibrous, often deep red-brown; crown rather dense. Indumentum of simple to stellate hairs. Leaves arranged spirally, often crowded towards the end of twigs, simple, entire; petiole often long and kneed at the top; stipules early caducous. Inflorescence axillary to cauliflorous; male inflorescence narrowly thyrsoid; female inflorescence narrowly racemose. Flowers unisexual, small; sepals 4-5; petals absent. Male flowers with 4-8 stamens; disk-glands absent or free or connate; pistillode evident. Female flowers somewhat larger; disk absent; ovary superior, 2-5-locular with 2 ovules in each cell, styles bifid. Fruit variably fleshy and indehiscent or sometimes dry and dehiscent, (2-)3(-5)-locular capsule, 1-6-seeded. Seed often enclosed in a juicy, brightly coloured outer layer. Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons emergent, leafy, often bilobed; hypocotyl elongated; first pair of leaves opposite or alternate, subsequent ones arranged spirally.
Some species show rhythmic growth, with the branches produced in pseudo-whorls as in Terminalia. Flowering is synchronized, particularly in male trees and takes 2-3 weeks. In Malaysia flowering occurs in January-March and in Papua New Guinea B. papuana flowers in July-August. Flowering and fruiting is annually or biannually. The flowers are pollinated by bees and flies; those of some species are reported as fragrant or with a musky odour. Birds, deer, monkeys and rats eat and disperse the fruits.
The actual morphological origin of the outer seed layer, sometimes erroneously called an aril, is still unknown.

Baccaurea species are generally uncommon, but may locally occur as an important element of the lower storey of primary lowland rain forest. They are found in well-drained as well as swampy locations, up to 1000(-1800) m altitude, on a wide range of soils in primary and secondary evergreen rain forest, kerangas and peat-swamp forest.

Baccaurea can be propagated by seed, but some fruit-producing species are also vegetatively propagated by air layering of female trees. Seeds of several species usually germinate in 2-6 weeks after sowing, with a germination rate of over 65%. The germination rate of fruits or seed sown with adhering pulp is less predictable: 3-100% germination in approximately the same time.

There are no records of Baccaurea in seed and germplasm banks. In several fruit-producing species there appears to be serious genetic erosion. Harvesting for timber, however, is unlikely to have a great impact on the genetic resource base.

Since Baccaurea species are fairly widespread and locally common as lower storey trees in primary forest, there is some scope for increased utilization of the wood for timber and wood-based panels.

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Salma Idris

Baccaurea bracteata
Baccaurea brevipes
Baccaurea dasystachya
Baccaurea dulcis
Baccaurea edulis
Baccaurea javanica
Baccaurea kunstleri
Baccaurea lanceolata
Baccaurea macrocarpa
Baccaurea minor
Baccaurea motleyana
Baccaurea nanihua
Baccaurea papuana
Baccaurea parviflora
Baccaurea polyneura
Baccaurea pubera
Baccaurea racemosa
Baccaurea ramiflora
Baccaurea reticulata
Baccaurea sumatrana

Idris, S., 1998. Baccaurea Lour.. 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:
Baccaurea bracteata
Baccaurea brevipes
Baccaurea dasystachya
Baccaurea dulcis
Baccaurea edulis
Baccaurea javanica
Baccaurea kunstleri
Baccaurea lanceolata
Baccaurea macrocarpa
Baccaurea minor
Baccaurea motleyana
Baccaurea nanihua
Baccaurea papuana
Baccaurea parviflora
Baccaurea polyneura
Baccaurea pubera
Baccaurea racemosa
Baccaurea ramiflora
Baccaurea reticulata
Baccaurea sumatrana