4980

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

Bauhinia L.

Sp. pl. 1: 374 (1753); Gen. pl., ed. 5: 177 (1754).

LEGUMINOSAE

x = 13, 14; B. malabarica: 2n = 28

Malabar bauhinia (En), mountain ebony (En, India). Indonesia: benculuk, kendayakan (Java), kripi (Sumba). Philippines: alibangbang (Bisaya, Pampangan, Tagalog). Burma (Myanmar): bwaygyin, bwechin, bwegyin. Cambodia: choeung kôô. Laos: 'sô'm² 'sièo². Thailand: chongkho, salaeng phan, sieo som. Vietnam: m[os]ng b[of], tai t[uw][owj]ng, tai voi.

Bauhinia is a pantropical genus of approximately 300 species. Few species occur naturally in Malesia, but several are commonly planted as an ornamental. Most species are climbers or shrubs, but some reach the size of a small tree. The only timber-yielding species in Malesia is B. malabarica Roxb. (synonyms: Piliostigma acidum (Reinw. ex Korth.) Benth., Piliostigma malabaricum (Roxb.) Benth.), which is distributed in India, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, Thailand, the Philippines, Central and East Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands and northern Australia.

Particularly in the Philippines, the wood of B. malabarica is used locally for temporary and interior construction and for the heels of slippers, and as firewood and for charcoal production.
The bright flowers of B. malabarica make it an attractive ornamental and roadside tree. The young leaves are eaten as a side-dish together with rice in Java, and are used to flavour meat and fish in the Philippines; they taste sour and are also eaten as relish. The bark is used to make ropes. Pounded bark is used in Timor for poulticing wounds. An infusion of fresh flowers is reported as anti-dysenteric. In the Philippines leaves are used as a febrifuge.

The wood of B. malabarica is utilized at a local scale only.

B. malabarica yields a medium-weight hardwood with a density of 665-820 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood pale red, not clearly differentiated from the sapwood; grain straight or slightly interlocked; texture moderately fine. Growth rings indistinct to distinct, when distinct banded parenchyma and vessels unevenly distributed; vessels medium-sized to moderately large, mostly in radial pairs, sometimes in radial multiples of over 4; parenchyma apotracheal in wide or occasionally narrow bands, conspicuous, and paratracheal vasicentric, but hardly visible; rays extremely fine, not visible to the naked eye; ripple marks present, but not distinct.
The wood seasons well; shrinkage is low. It is moderately hard and comparatively strong. It works moderately easy and is durable only for interior work. The sapwood is susceptible to Lyctus and the heartwood is susceptible to dry-wood termites. The energy value of the wood is about 18 100 kJ/kg.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.

An evergreen or nearly evergreen, dioecious, small tree up to 17 m tall; bole short and often gnarled, up to 50 cm in diameter; bark surface rather fissured and peeling off in long strips, yellowish-brown and chequered. Leaves alternate, simple, ovate to rotund, bifid up to one fourth of their length with a broad sinus and broadly rounded lobes; stipules linear, caducous. Flowers in a compound, densely-flowered, racemose inflorescence, clavate in bud, long-pedicelled, unisexual; calyx tubular and splitting into 3-5 segments above; petals 5, white. Male flowers with 10 stamens; ovary rudimentary. Female flowers with 10 minute staminodes; ovary superior, stiped, stigma peltate. Fruit an indehiscent, strap-shaped and striate pod with a long beak, 10-30-seeded. Seed oblong, dark brown. Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons emergent; hypocotyl elongated; all leaves alternate.
In secondary forest in the Philippines a mean annual diameter increment of 2.3-2.8 cm has been recorded for B. malabarica, but a value as low as 0.1 cm is reported from India. In Java it flowers in March-April and fruits in July-October. Ectomycorrhizae are known to be present.
B. malabarica differs from other South-East Asian Bauhinia species particularly in being dioecious.

B. malabarica often occurs in areas with a distinct dry season. In Java and Thailand it is common in teak forest and open deciduous forest, and sometimes also in savanna, usually up to 400 m altitude; in Timor it occurs up to 600 m, often on limestone. In the Philippines it is locally common on drier, hilly sites. Although it is locally frequent, it is never dominant. The annual rainfall in its natural habitat in India varies between 1000 and 3000 mm.

B. malabarica can be raised from seed. There are about 15 500 dry seeds/kg. The germination percentage of seeds stored for 2 weeks is about 45%, but this drops to about 25% after 3 months of storage. Germination takes 55-123 days. Seeds should be sown no deeper than 1 cm and in full sunlight to allow optimal germination. In the nursery seeds are pretreated with hot water for 2-3 minutes and soaked in cold water for 24 hours before sowing. Average height and diameter are 33 cm and 0.5 cm after 1 month and 76 cm and 1.1 cm, after 4 months. B. malabarica can be planted in lowland areas with a dry season of 4-6 months, but when planted on poor soils growth stagnates after a few years. The survival of seedlings planted in Imperata cylindrica (L.) Raeuschel vegetation was only about 43%. B. malabarica is fire-resistant and occurs naturally scattered in grasslands subject to fire in the Philippines.

B. malabarica is widespread and locally common in vegetation types which are usually not subject to heavy logging. The risk of genetic erosion is therefore small.

The value of B. malabarica as a timber tree seems to be negligible because of the small size and often poor form of the bole. In the Philippines managing fire-prone areas with the aim of producing pulp from B. malabarica may have potential. Besides that, it is an attractive ornamental.

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I. Samsoedin

Samsoedin, I., 1998. Bauhinia 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