5080

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

Cathormion Hassk.

Retzia 1: 231 (1855).

LEGUMINOSAE

x = unknown; 2n = 26 reported for an African species

Indonesia: lambaran (Sundanese), lom (Javanese), kiutasi (Timor). Cambodia: sâmbu:ë sâ:r. Thailand: ma kham khaek (general), rakam pa (northern). Vietnam: me d[aas]t, ti[ee]m.

Cathormion is a pantropical genus comprising about 12 species. The only species occurring in South-East Asia is Cathormion umbellatum (Vahl) Kosterm. (synonyms: Pithecellobium malayanum Pierre, Pithecellobium moniliferum (DC.) Benth., Pithecellobium umbellatum (Vahl) Benth.), which is distributed from Sri Lanka and southern India to Indo-China (Cambodia, Laos and southern Vietnam), Thailand, Sumatra, Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, New Guinea and northern Australia.

The wood of C. umbellatum is used in house building.

The wood of C. umbellatum is used rarely and on a local scale only.

C. umbellatum yields a medium-weight hardwood with a density of 720-840 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Wood similar in appearance to Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr. Heartwood pale to dark brown with dark streaks and pale brown ribbon figure, sharply demarcated from the white to yellowish-white sapwood; grain straight to wavy; texture moderately coarse to coarse and even. Growth rings indistinct to barely visible due to zonate bands of parenchyma; vessels medium-sized to large, solitary and in radial multiples of 2-3, mostly open, sometimes with pale brown or reddish gummy deposits and occasional creamy to yellowish chalky deposits; parenchyma moderately abundant, paratracheal vasicentric, aliform to sometimes confluent, and apotracheal diffuse sometimes present, difficult to see, and in narrow irregularly spaced bands; rays fine, not visible to the naked eye; ripple marks absent.
The wood is fairly strong and hard. It is considered slightly durable in contact with the ground or exposed to the weather, but durable when used under cover.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.

Shrubs or small, sometimes medium-sized trees up to 15(-22) m tall; bole often short, crooked, up to 60(-70) cm in diameter; bark surface rough, deeply fissured and peeling in irregular flakes, dark greyish-brown to dark brown, inner bark orange-brown to reddish; crown irregular and dense, often flat-topped, with numerous spiny branches. Leaves arranged spirally, bipinnate, rachis and pinnae glandular, pinnae 1-2(-4) pairs, leaflets (3-)5-8(-13) pairs, asymmetrical; stipules spinescent. Flowers in stalked corymbs in leaf axils or on short lateral branches, 5-merous, central flower larger than marginal ones; calyx subtubular; corolla funnel-shaped with valvate lobes; stamens numerous, united into a tube at base; ovary superior, sessile. Fruit a woody, indehiscent pod, breaking up into 1-seeded segments. Seed broadly ellipsoid, flat, brown to black, endosperm absent, cotyledons large.
Flowering occurs when the leaves are unfolding. The 1-seeded pod segments are dispersed by water.
Cathormion is closely related to (and possibly congeneric with) Albizia, but differs in its segmented pod (rare in Albizia). It has been suggested that the genus be considered as monotypic (with C. umbellatum as the only species) and that the African and American species currently included in Cathormion be transferred to Albizia. C. umbellatum is divided into two subspecies: subsp. umbellatum with small and oblong leaflets from Sri Lanka, India, Indo-China and Thailand, and subsp. moniliforme (DC.) Brummitt with larger and rhombic leaflets from Sumatra and Java to New Guinea and northern Australia.

C. umbellatum usually occurs in coastal regions, in particular in the drier parts of mangrove forest and along the seashore. However, it can also be found in humid locations along canal banks and in those submerged during the rainy season, up to 50(-150) m altitude.

C. umbellatum is widely distributed, not often felled for its timber, and it therefore does not seem to be liable to genetic erosion.

C. umbellatum is not to be recommended for planting as a timber, since its size is too small and the shape of the bole too poor. It is unlikely that the utilization of the timber will become more important in the near future.

[70]Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr., R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen.
[125]Bolza, E. & Kloot, N.H., 1966. The mechanical properties of 81 New Guinea timbers. Technological Paper No 41. Division of Forest Products, CSIRO, Melbourne. 39 pp.
[153]Brummitt, R.K., 1970. Notes on two south-east Asian species of Leguminosae, Cathormion umbellatum and Pericopsis mooniana. Kew Bulletin 24: 231-234.
[341]Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.
[343]Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viêtnam (various editors), 1960-. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.
[348]Forest Products Research Centre, 1967. Properties and uses of Papua and New Guinea timbers. Forest Products Research Centre, Port Moresby. 30 pp.
[436]Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlands-Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd edition, 3 volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch-Indië. 1953 pp. (3rd edition, 1950. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage/Bandung. 1660 pp.).
[601]Kostermans, A.J.G.H., 1954. A monograph of the Asiatic, Malaysian, Australian and Pacific species of Mimosaceae, formerly included in Pithecolobium Mart. Bulletin No 20. Organization for Scientific Research in Indonesia, Djakarta. 122 pp.
[861]Oey Djoen Seng, 1951. De soortelijke gewichten van Indonesische houtsoorten en hun betekenis voor de praktijk [Specific gravity of Indonesian woods and its significance for practical use]. Rapport No 46. Bosbouwproefstation, Bogor. 183 pp.
[1039]Smitinand, T. & Larsen, K. (Editors), 1970-. Flora of Thailand. The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department, Bangkok.
[1163]Verdcourt, B., 1979. A manual of New Guinea legumes. Botany Bulletin No 11. Office of Forests, Division of Botany, Lae. 645 pp.

E. Boer (general part), R.H.M.J. Lemmens (general part), J. Ilic (wood anatomy)

Boer, E., Lemmens, R.H.M.J. & Ilic, J., 1998. Cathormion Hassk.. 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