5242

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

Dysoxylum Blume

Bijdr. fl. Ned. Ind. 4: 172 (1825).

MELIACEAE

x = unknown; D. excelsum, D. mollissimum: n = 40 (2n = 20 and 84 have been reported for extra-Malesian species)

Dysox, membalun (trade names). Onion wood, rose mahogany (En). Indonesia: cempaga (general), bangkiring payo (Sumatra), kapinango (Sundanese). Malaysia: jarum-jarum, pasak lingga (Peninsular), lantupak (Sabah). Papua New Guinea: red dysox (En), buk-buk (Pidgin). Thailand: ta suea. Vietnam: huynh d[uw][owf]ng.

Dysoxylum is a large genus comprising about 80 species occurring from India and Sri Lanka to Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, southern China, Thailand and throughout the Malesian region, east towards the Pacific and south towards Australia and New Zealand. The highest number of endemic species are found in New Guinea and on islands in the Pacific. At least 46 species are present within Malesia.

The wood of Dysoxylum is used for a wide variety of products such as general construction, boat construction, heavy decking, flooring, posts, foundation piles, doors, window frames and sills, mouldings, interior finish, decorative wall panelling, high grade furniture, cabinet work, coffins, vats, pallets, cart wheels, carving, turnery, tool handles, billiard cue butts, and match splints and matchboxes. It is also used for the production of sliced veneer, plywood and blockboard, and is suitable for the production of pulp. The wood of D. acutangulum (particularly that of its buttresses) is decoratively figured and has been used for furniture, cartwheels and coffins.
D. excelsum may be useful for reforestation purposes. D. macrocarpum has been planted as cover crop in Java at 600-1400 m altitude in forest plantations for soil protection and improvement. Dysoxylum species are well-known in the Philippines for their medicinal properties; an infusion of the bark is widely used as an emetic. The bark also shows piscidal and insecticidal properties and is sometimes poisonous to man. Seeds of some species are said to be poisonous, whereas those of others, e.g. D. alliaceum, smell of garlic and have been used in fish sauces. Young leaves of the same species smell of onions and have been cooked with fish. Fruits of D. excelsum are reported as edible, and those of several species are used as fish bait. In Fiji the fruit of D. mollissimum is used for the treatment of wounds.

Small amounts of Dysoxylum are exported to Japan mainly from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. In 1996 Papua New Guinea a fair volume of about 23 650 m³ of "dysox"" logs at an average free-on-board (FOB) price of US$ 109/m³. In Irian Jaya Dysoxylum is traded mixed with Aglaia timber and is one of the principal commercial timbers.

Dysoxylum yields a medium-weight to heavy hardwood with a density of (400-)440-1020 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood pale reddish-brown or reddish-yellow, generally well or occasionally not distinctly demarcated from the up to 20 cm wide, white, yellowish or rather bright yellow or pale brown sapwood; grain interlocked or wavy, occasionally straight; texture fine to slightly coarse and uneven due to the abundance of wood parenchyma; wood with some watered-silk figure in material with broad rays; wood of some species with cedar-like or onion-like odour. Growth rings often indistinct, when distinct marked by dense wood and by a narrow layer of marginal parenchyma; vessels small to moderately large, solitary and in radial multiples of 2-4(-6), with occasional white deposits; parenchyma abundant, apotracheal in more or less continuous bands, wavy, occasional straighter bands indicating growth ring boundaries, visible to the naked eye; rays very fine to moderately broad, generally visible to the naked eye; ripple marks absent; pith flecks not unusual.
Shrinkage is moderate and the wood seasons well, but may check or twist slightly; preliminary air drying is recommended for 50 mm thick quarter-sawn material. Stock should be carefully stacked when kiln dried; the recommended kiln schedule consists of a temperature of 38-70°C and a relative humidity of 86-38%. The wood is moderately hard to hard and strong. It is moderately easy to easy to work and is satisfactory to machine and peel. The wood is reported to be non-durable to moderately durable when exposed to the weather or in contact with the ground. However, it is probably only moderately durable under exposed conditions. The wood is readily treated; the retention by the pressure method is 421-450 kg/m³ for heartwood of D. excelsum and 536-549 kg/m³ for heartwood of D. gaudichaudianum, but from Papua New Guinea it is reported that the heartwood is highly resistant to pressure impregnation. The resistance to fungal and insect attack is very variable but the sapwood of most species is susceptible to Lyctus.
The sawdust of some species may cause irritation to mucous membranes. Seeds of several species contain the toxic dysoxylum acid.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.

Evergreen, dioecious (seldom with bisexual flowers) shrubs or small to fairly large or rarely large trees up to 35(-47) m tall; bole variable in shape, branchless for up to 20(-28) m, up to 80(-150) cm in diameter, sometimes with buttresses up to 3(-5) m high, sometimes fluted at base; bark surface smooth and lenticellate to fissured, becoming cracked, grey or grey-brown to blackish, inner bark often fibrous, straw-coloured to brown, sometimes with pinkish bands or mottled brown to orange, often fragrant or sometimes sour or pungent. Leaves arranged spirally or seldom opposite, paripinnate or rarely imparipinnate, exstipulate; leaflets opposite, entire. Flowers in an axillary to cauliflorous, paniculate to racemose inflorescence, sometimes reduced to a fascicle or solitary, functionally unisexual; calyx 3-5(-6)-lobed or with free sepals; petals 3-6, free or adnate to the lower half of the staminal tube; staminal tube cylindrical to urceolate with 6-16 anthers; disk free; ovary superior, 2-6-locular with 1-2 seeds in each cell, style head capitate to discoid. Fruit a 2-6-valved capsule. Seed usually with an opaque, orange-yellow to red aril or sarcotesta. Seedling with hypogeal germination; cotyledons occasionally emergent, peltate; hypocotyl not or only slightly elongated; first pair of leaves opposite or spiral, simple to 5-foliolate.
Flowers are pollinated by insects. In West Java flowering is generally from January-May, whereas fruits are found from April-December. The lipid-rich and colourful seeds are mainly dispersed by birds, e.g. hornbills and pigeons, occasionally by bats, and are also eaten by monkeys. Seeds of the rheophyte D. angustifolium King are eaten and dispersed by fish and render their flesh poisonous or unpalatable.
D. mollissimum has been divided into 2 subspecies, the first (subsp. mollissimum) occurring from India east to Bali and the second (subsp. molle (Miq.) Mabb.) occurring from Flores and Sulawesi eastward. D. acutangulum also comprises 2 subspecies, the typical one occurring in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippines, the second (subsp. foveolatum (Radlk.) Mabb.) in Sumatra, West Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, the southern Moluccas and New Guinea.

Dysoxylum species are found scattered and are rarely common. Few reach the canopy top. They occur in evergreen or rarely semi-deciduous, primary or sometimes secondary forest and regrowth. Most species are found in well-drained habitats in the lowland on clayey to sandy soils, several extend into the montane zones, up to 2000(-2900) m altitude, in perhumid to seasonal climates. Forest types include swamp forest, coastal forest, riverine forest, ridge forest, kerangas and forest on limestone. D. alliaceum is found in Agathis forest on peat overlying sand. In Papua New Guinea some common associates of Dysoxylum are Cinnamomum, Cryptocarya, Diploglottis, Heritiera and Sloanea species.

Dysoxylum can be propagated by seed. Per kg D. parasiticum has about 4400 dry seeds and D. gaudichaudianum about 1100 fresh seeds. Seeds sown without pulp generally germinate faster than those sown with pulp. Seeds of D. arborescens have a germination rate of 70% in 2-10 months, those of D. cauliflorum 95% in 1-3 months and those of D. angustifolium King 90-100% in 3 weeks to 2 months. When sown with adhering pulp, seeds of D. cauliflorum have a germination rate of 80% in 3.5-8 months, those of D. densiflorum 30-75% in 1.5-8.5 months, and those of D. excelsum 80% in 1-4 months. In Belitung Island, Indonesia, plantation trials revealed slow growth of D. acutangulum and planting was abandoned. In natural forest in West Java at an altitude of 1100-1500 m Dysoxylum species were among the few major commercial species; their natural regeneration, however, was very erratic. The few seedlings which did come up, were found in open areas as well as under shade and had a height increment of only about 25 cm in three years. Dysoxylum species are not resistant to fire and seedlings die in 7-11 days when exposed to waterlogged conditions. Locally in Papua New Guinea Dysoxylum species may constitute 4% of the total exploitable timber volume of trees over 50 cm diameter.

Apart from some individual trees kept in botanical gardens and parks, none of the Dysoxylum species is conserved ex situ. Practically all rare and endemic species are found in New Guinea. As this is also the area with the highest trade figures for Dysoxylum timber, there is a potential risk of genetic erosion and maybe even extinction of some of the rarer species.

Although the quality of Dysoxylum wood is renowned, surprisingly little is known on silvicultural management of natural forest containing Dysoxylum species. Research is needed on their behaviour in plantations or enrichment plantings.

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

Dysoxylum acutangulum
Dysoxylum alliaceum
Dysoxylum annae
Dysoxylum arborescens
Dysoxylum brassii
Dysoxylum carolinae
Dysoxylum cauliflorum
Dysoxylum crassum
Dysoxylum cyrtobotryum
Dysoxylum densiflorum
Dysoxylum excelsum
Dysoxylum flavescens
Dysoxylum gaudichaudianum
Dysoxylum grande
Dysoxylum inopinatum
Dysoxylum kaniense
Dysoxylum latifolium
Dysoxylum macrocarpum
Dysoxylum mollissimum
Dysoxylum oppositifolium
Dysoxylum papuanum
Dysoxylum parasiticum
Dysoxylum pettigrewianum
Dysoxylum randianum
Dysoxylum rigidum
Dysoxylum setosum
Dysoxylum stellatopuberulum

Aggarwal, S. & Sosef, M.S.M., 1998. Dysoxylum Blume. 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:
Dysoxylum acutangulum
Dysoxylum alliaceum
Dysoxylum annae
Dysoxylum arborescens
Dysoxylum brassii
Dysoxylum carolinae
Dysoxylum cauliflorum
Dysoxylum crassum
Dysoxylum cyrtobotryum
Dysoxylum densiflorum
Dysoxylum excelsum
Dysoxylum flavescens
Dysoxylum gaudichaudianum
Dysoxylum grande
Dysoxylum inopinatum
Dysoxylum kaniense
Dysoxylum latifolium
Dysoxylum macrocarpum
Dysoxylum mollissimum
Dysoxylum oppositifolium
Dysoxylum papuanum
Dysoxylum parasiticum
Dysoxylum pettigrewianum
Dysoxylum randianum
Dysoxylum rigidum
Dysoxylum setosum
Dysoxylum stellatopuberulum