5400

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

Fernandoa Welw. ex Seem.

Journ. Bot. 3: 330, t. 37-38 (1865).

BIGNONIACEAE

x = 20; F. adenophylla: 2n = 40

Fernandoa comprises 15 species, 8 of which occur in tropical Africa and Madagascar. The other 7 are found from India to Indo-China, China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and northern Sumatra. Only 2 species are present in the Malesian region.

The wood of Fernandoa is used for house building (e.g. beams, posts) and for boats (especially F. macroloba) and is suitable for furniture, cabinet making and mouldings (especially F. adenophylla). It has been used as fuelwood in India.
The flowers are edible. In Laos a decoction of the bark is given after childbirth.

Utilization of the wood of Fernandoa is probably on a local scale only.

Fernandoa yields a medium-weight (F. macroloba) to heavy (F. adenophylla) hardwood with a density of 610-1000 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood orange-yellow with occasional darker streaks or brownish-white, sapwood pale yellow; texture fine; wood with conspicuous silver grain; oily or greasy to the touch. Growth rings indistinct or sometimes distinct, marked by marginal parenchyma; vessels moderately small to medium-sized, solitary and in radial multiples of up to 4, occasionally running in more or less concentric lines, with a sulphur-yellow substance; parenchyma apotracheal in irregularly spaced bands, and paratracheal vasicentric, aliform or confluent; rays fine to moderately broad; ripple marks absent.
The wood is moderately hard to hard and durable unless exposed to the weather or in contact with the ground. It is resistant to termite attack.
See also the table on microscopic wood anatomy.

Evergreen or deciduous, small to fairly large trees up to 40 m tall; bole branchless for up to 20 m, up to 70 cm in diameter, without buttresses; bark surface scaly, grey, inner bark laminated, pink. Leaves decussate, pinnate, with 2-5 pairs of leaflets, terminal leaflet largest, with glands and hairy domatia in the vein axils beneath; stipules absent. Flowers in a terminal or axillary thyrse, densely to sparsely stellate hairy; calyx with 2-5 unequal lobes, with warty or prominent glands in the upper half; corolla trumpet-shaped, white to yellow-brown, the 5 lobes undulate to crenate; stamens 4 and a 5th rudimentary one; disk annular; ovary superior, 2-locular with many ovules, style long. Fruit a capsule, terete, smooth or ribbed, sometimes flattened, with a flat septum, many-seeded. Seed rather rectangular, with narrow membranous wings. Seedling with epigeal germination.
Flowering and fruiting may occur at an early age and is from March to December in Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. Flowers are nocturnal and pollination might be by bats. Seed dispersal is by wind.
The Asian Fernandoa species formerly comprised a distinct genus, Haplophragma. Several authors still consider the differences in inflorescence and flower structure significant enough to justify the recognition of two distinct genera, in which case Fernandoa is confined to Africa and Madagascar.

The Malesian species of Fernandoa are generally uncommon but may be locally abundant. They occur in evergreen monsoon to mixed deciduous, primary or sometimes secondary rain forest, sometimes in bamboo forest or even savanna, up to 850 m altitude. F. adenophylla prefers limestone or siliceous soils.

Fernandoa can be raised from seed.

The limited geographic distribution of F. macroloba may make it vulnerable to genetic erosion through destruction of its habitat, although at present it does not seem to be endangered.

Very little is known on the properties of Fernandoa wood from South-East Asia, except that F. macroloba yields good-quality timber. Information from India indicates that Fernandoa timber has good prospects for furniture and cabinet-work.

[113]Bidgood, S., 1994. Synopsis of the continental African species of Fernandoa (Bignoniaceae). Kew Bulletin 49: 381-390.
[163]Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd edition. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur. Vol. 1 (A-H) pp. 1-1240. Vol. 2 (I-Z) pp. 1241-2444.
[329]Faegeri, K. & van der Pijl, L., 1971. The principles of pollination ecology. 2nd edition. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 154 pp.
[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.
[364]Gamble, J.S., 1922. A manual of Indian timbers. 2nd edition. Sampsom Low, Marston & Company, London. 868 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.).
[464]Ilic, J., 1990. The CSIRO macro key for hardwood identification. CSIRO, Highett. 125 pp.
[790]Metcalfe, C.R. & Chalk, L., 1957. Anatomy of the dicotyledons. 2 volumes. Corrected edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1506 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.
[1038]Smitinand, T., 1980. Thai plant names. Royal Forest Department, Bangkok. 379 pp.
[1039]Smitinand, T. & Larsen, K. (Editors), 1970-. Flora of Thailand. The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department, Bangkok.
[1144]van Steenis, C.G.G.J., 1976. Conspectus of the genera Radermachera and Fernandoa in Indo-Malesia (Bignoniaceae). Blumea 23: 121-138.
[1221]Whitmore, T.C. & Ng, F.S.P. (Editors), 1972-1989. Tree flora of Malaya. A manual for foresters. 4 volumes. Malayan Forest Records No 26. Longman Malaysia Sdn. Berhad, Kuala Lumpur & Petaling Jaya.

S.H. Widodo

Fernandoa adenophylla
Fernandoa macroloba

Widodo, S.H., 1998. Fernandoa Welw. ex Seem.. 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:
Fernandoa adenophylla
Fernandoa macroloba