5059

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

Carapa Aubl.

Hist. pl. Guiane 2, Suppl.: 32, t. 387 (1775).

MELIACEAE

x = unknown; C. guianensis: 2n = 58, C. procera: 2n = 58

Andiroba (Fr, Sp, trade name). Crabwood (En, trade name). Bastard mahogany, carapa (En).

Carapa comprises 3-4 species occurring in the Neotropics and tropical Africa. Two of them have been introduced into the Malesian region (Java, Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore) and are potential plantation species.

The wood of Carapa resembles mahogany (Swietenia spp.) but is less attractive in appearance. Main applications are for high quality furniture, stairs and flooring, and as veneer for furniture, interior work and plywood. Furthermore, it is used for cabinet work, masts, fire-resistant building material and as a substitute for okoumé (Aucoumea klaineana Pierre) and walnut (Juglans regia L.). The wood is suitable for the production of pulp and paper.
The bark is used for tanning and medicinally as a febrifuge. The oil obtained from the seeds and called "crab oil"" or "andiroba"" is well-known and used as lamp oil and for making soap and candles. It is also applied as an external medicine against skin complaints and has insecticidal properties. Carapa guianensis is planted as an ornamental in the Caribbean, where it is locally naturalized, and is suitable for enrichment planting.

Carapa is of considerable importance in tropical America where it is locally heavily exploited. It is exported mainly from Brazil and the Guianas, but it is hardly known in South-East Asia. The oil obtained from the seeds is of importance for local industries in Brazil and may be exploited commercially in Africa.

The following macroscopic description and wood properties are entirely based on material from Central and South America. Carapa yields a medium-weight hardwood with a density of 580-750 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content. Heartwood pale pink to red-brown when fresh, darkening to a fairly uniform reddish-brown, not clearly demarcated from the 2.5-5 cm wide pale brown to greyish sapwood; grain generally straight, sometimes interlocked; texture fine to coarse. Growth rings occasionally indicated by marginal parenchyma; vessels medium-sized, mostly solitary, also in radial multiples of 2-3, open; parenchyma paratracheal, and apotracheal in marginal bands; rays moderately fine to broad, conspicuously dark on radial split surface; irregularly storied; rarely with tangential lines of traumatic ducts.
Shrinkage upon seasoning is moderate to high; the wood is moderately difficult to air dry, requiring slow drying under cover, kiln schedule C is recommended. The timber is moderately soft to moderately hard, strong and moderately tough. It has good working properties with a moderate dulling effect on tools and a slight tendency to split on nailing. It glues well and polishes satisfactorily. The heartwood is moderately durable, fairly resistant to termites, but sapwood is susceptible to Lyctus and pinhole borer attack. Logs are liable to severe ambrosia beetle attack. The heartwood is resistant and sapwood amenable to preservative treatment.
The energy value of the wood is about 20 000 kJ/kg. In South America foresters recognize two types of wood: "red"" or "hill crabwood"" and "white crabwood"". The first is said to be superior and is obtained from trees growing on higher land, whereas white crabwood is derived from trees in swampy locations.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.

Deciduous or semi-evergreen, monoecious, medium-sized to large trees up to 35(-55) m tall; bole straight and cylindrical, branchless for up to 20(-30) m, up to 100(-200) cm in diameter, sometimes fluted, with short buttresses up to 2 m high; bark surface flaking into squarish scales or in horizontal strips, light grey to greyish-brown or dark brown, sometimes reddish, inner bark fibrous, red or pinkish-brown. Leaves alternate, paripinnate with a dormant glandular leaflet at the apex, exstipulate; leaflets opposite, entire. Flowers borne in a large, axillary or subterminal thyrse, unisexual but with well developed vestiges of the opposite sex, 4-5(-6)-merous; calyx lobed almost to the base; petals slightly contorted; stamens united in a tube which bears 8-10 anthers; disk bowl-shaped; ovary superior, 4-5(-6)-locular with (2-)3-8 ovules in each cell, style short with a discoid stigma. Fruit a pendulous, subglobose, woody capsule. Seed with woody sarcotesta. Seedling with the cotyledons not emergent; cataphylls arranged spirally; first pair of leaves simple, subsequent ones trifoliolate, bright red.
C. guianensis shows gigantic leaves in the monocaulous juvenile stage, decreasing in size when branching is initiated. C. procera retains a branch-like feature in the failure of the leaves to develop a basal abscission zone. The rachis becomes embedded in the trunk after the leaflets have fallen. C. guianensis develops according to the architectural model of Scarrone, characterized by an indeterminate trunk bearing tiers of orthotropic branches which branch sympodially as a result of terminal flowering. The life span of C. guianensis in Costa Rica is estimated at about 440 years. In trials in West Java the mean annual increment of 8.5-11-year-old C. guianensis in a perhumid climate with an annual rainfall of 3500-4000 mm was 0.6-1.5 cm in diameter and 0.8-1.6 m in height, and in a seasonal climate with an annual rainfall of 1900 mm 0.9-1.0 cm in height and 0.8 m in diameter. These values had decreased to 0.8 cm and 0.6 m, respectively when the trial with 4000 mm of rain annually was 27 years old. In South America C. guianensis showed a mean annual diameter increment of 1.6-2.0 cm in 25-year-old plantations. The flowering period depends heavily on the climate, but is usually concentrated in one short period per year. Pollination is probably by insects. Usually only one or two fruits in an inflorescence mature in about 8 months to a year. The seeds float and are thus dispersed by water but are also, at least in Costa Rica, scatter-hoarded by agoutis and occasionally by pigs. Trees are often found swarming with ants which visit the extrafloral nectaries at the shoot apices and tips of leaflets.

C. guianensis and C. procera are locally common elements of the canopy or sub-canopy layer of the South-American evergreen to semi-evergreen rain forest. They sometimes occur as dominant trees or even in almost pure stands and are found predominantly along rivers and on periodically flooded or swampy locations, but also on higher ground and low hills.

C. guianensis can be propagated by seed, which can be stored for only two months. Large cuttings can be used when planted in swampy soil, but this technique is not used on a large scale. A mature tree may produce 750-4000 seeds a year, but seed production may be almost zero in unfavourable years. There are about 62 dry seeds/kg. When sown on the surface or shallowly in moist soil, all fresh seeds will germinate. A lower germination rate may be due to seeds drying out, excessive watering or insect damage. Unscarified seeds complete germination in 19-21 days, while scarified seeds take only 6-7 days. Early growth in the nursery is moderately fast and seedlings may attain 0.5 m in the first year. The roots of 1-year-old seedlings are pruned at about 15 cm while still in the nursery bed and when new rootlets begin to develop the plants can be uprooted and planted out. In a trial in West Java with a seasonal climate C. guianensis suffered from shoot borer (Hypsipyla) attack. In plantations in its natural habitat it is also susceptible to various Hypsipyla species, which tunnel into the leading shoots and causing malformations of the stem. C. guianensis may be considered for cultivation on swampy soils, since in a trial in Indonesia it proved very resistant to oxygen deficiency and mortality was not observed until 90 days. Carapa is moderately tolerant of shade, but full overhead light is required for fast growth. It coppices freely and is resistant to fire. In swamp forest trees reach the felling size in 20-25 years, at higher elevations probably at 40-60 years.

Because of its importance for local oil-processing industries, C. guianensis is protected in Pará State (Brazil).

Carapa seems a promising plantation tree for South-East Asia. More information on growth performance in South-East Asia and genetic variability is required for successful cultivation.

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S.I. Wiselius

Carapa guianensis
Carapa procera

Wiselius, S.I., 1998. Carapa Aubl.. 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:
Carapa guianensis
Carapa procera