4981

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

Berrya Roxb.

Pl. Coromandel 3: 60, t. 264 (1820).

TILIACEAE

x = unknown; B. cordifolia: 2n = 40

Halmalille wood, trincomali wood (En). Philippines: malibayo. Burma (Myanmar): mai-long. Thailand: liang (general).

Berrya comprises 4 species occurring from Sri Lanka and India to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Java, Christmas Island, Borneo, the Philippines and Sulawesi. B. cordifolia has been planted in Peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia, and has also been introduced to tropical West Africa, India, Hawaii and Fiji.

The heavy wood of Berrya is used for high-grade construction, heavy-duty flooring, ship and boat building, vehicle bodies, furniture, sporting goods, agricultural implements, boxes and crates, railway sleepers, piling, carving, turnery, draining boards and bentwood sticks. It is especially suitable for purposes where strength and elasticity are required.
In West Africa B. cordifolia has been planted in wind-breaks and shelter belts. An ethanol extract of this species proved highly toxic to the European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis).

In the Malesian region Berrya wood is used on a local scale only. In India and Burma (Myanmar), however, the wood (mainly that of B. cordifolia) is valued and commercially traded. In the 1970s annual exports from Burma (Myanmar) amounted to about 500 t, approximately 600 m³.

Berrya yields a heavy or sometimes medium-weight hardwood with a density of 690-935(-1080) kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood dark red to brown, often with darker streaks, distinct from the whitish to pale brown sapwood; grain straight or shallowly interlocked; texture fine to medium; wood greasy to the touch, with pungent odour when freshly sawn. Growth rings may be distinct; vessels very small to medium-sized, almost all in radial multiples of 2-4, multiples of over 4 common, tyloses abundant; parenchyma paratracheal confluent and apotracheal in narrow bands, the latter not visible to the naked eye; rays very fine, not visible to the naked eye; ripple marks distinct.
Stock seasons slowly and is not subject to serious splitting, but may develop some surface checks; stacks must be weighted down. The wood is hard, strong, and tough and elastic. It is difficult to saw, but works remarkably well with all other tools, takes a good finish and a high polish, has good wearing and weathering properties, and is rather difficult to glue. The wood is very durable. The heartwood is extremely resistant to impregnation, but does not need any treatment for practical purposes. Under cover the heartwood is resistant to dry-wood termites, but the sapwood is susceptible to Lyctus.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.

Deciduous, small to medium-sized trees up to 30(-40) m tall; bole frequently crooked in Malesia but apparently better shaped in India and Indo-China, branchless for up to 15 m, up to 80 cm in diameter, fluted at base or with low buttresses; bark surface vaguely fissured, becoming irregularly flaky, pale brown, inner bark white to pale brown. Indumentum of stellate hairs. Leaves arranged spirally, simple, frequently with a dentate margin, palmately (3-)5-7-veined, with tufts of hairs in primary vein-axils below; stipules small and caducous. Flowers in an axillary or terminal panicle; sepals fused but irregularly splitting or 3-5-lobed; petals (3-)5(-6), pink or white; stamens many, in 5 lax bundles, connate at base, anthers dorsifixed; ovary superior, 2-5-locular with 2-6 ovules per cell; style 1. Fruit a globose capsule, each valve with 2 longitudinal wings. Seed hairy or enclosed in papery exotesta. Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons emergent, leafy; hypocotyl elongated; seedling leaves toothed.
Seedling growth of B. cordifolia is comparatively slow. In Java B. javanica flowers from April to June and in September, whereas B. cordifolia does so in February to June. In northern Australia B. javanica flowers from April to May and fruits have been collected from April to November. B. cordifolia is fairly fast-growing with an average annual diameter increment of 1 cm for at least the first 30 years.

Berrya is usually found scattered in deciduous primary forest, sometimes in secondary forest or in brushwoods and thickets, up to 1000 m altitude. It seems to prefer dry slopes, and has been found on a variety of soils, including limestone soils. However, at least B. cordifolia does not grow well on clayey soils; it tolerates poor drainage, but is not resistant to drought. In Burma (Myanmar) B. cordifolia is found in association with teak (Tectona grandis L. f.), Terminalia tomentosa (Roxb.) Wight & Arn., Dalbergia cultrata Graham ex Benth. and Homalium tomentosum (Vent.) Benth. It requires partial shade especially in the seedling stage; solitary trees in full sun grow poorly.

Berrya can be propagated by seed. Seedweight of B. cordifolia is about 52 000 seeds/kg; about 30% of the seed germinates in 14-33 days, but a germination percentage of 20% has also been reported. In India and Sri Lanka seedlings 8-10 months old are used as bare-rooted planting stock. Stumps prepared from 1.5-2-year-old stock having a diameter of 2 cm can also be used; the shoot is trimmed to 3-4 cm and the roots to 20 cm. Planting of stumps resulted in 70-75% survival. B. cordifolia coppices well and produces root suckers. In the Philippines it is attacked by seedling blight (Pellicularia rolfsii).

Thanks to the wide geographic distribution of the timber-yielding species there is little risk of genetic erosion of Berrya species.

The fast growth of B. cordifolia and its high-quality timber make it worthwhile to start silvicultural research in the Malesian region.

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E. Boer (general part), M.S.M. Sosef (general part, selection of species)

Berrya cordifolia
Berrya javanica
Berrya mollis

Boer, E. & Sosef, M.S.M., 1998. Berrya Roxb.. 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:
Berrya cordifolia
Berrya javanica
Berrya mollis