5845

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

Memecylon L.

Sp. pl. 1: 349 (1753); Gen. pl., ed. 5: 481 (1754).

MELASTOMATACEAE

x = unknown; M. edule: n = 7, 2n = 24, M. caeruleum: 2n = 24

Brunei: gelam-gelam. Malaysia: nipis kulit (general), bangas, delek (Peninsular). Thailand: phlong.

Memecylon comprises about 300 species distributed in the Old World tropics, from tropical Africa to the whole of the Malesian region, northern Australia and the Pacific. Within Malesia some 80 species are found: 28 in Peninsular Malaysia, 18 in Sumatra, 12 in Java, 27 in Borneo, 4 in Sulawesi and 5 in the Moluccas. No up-to-date figures are available for the Philippines and New Guinea; each has some 20-30 species.

The wood of Memecylon has been applied for local house building (e.g. poles, beams and rafters), temporary construction, ship and boat building, furniture, paddles, tool handles, rice pestles, anchors, household utensils and walking sticks. It also yields a good-quality charcoal and fuelwood.
The leaves of M. caeruleum are edible. The fruits of all species are edible with a sweet to sour taste, but the pericarp is generally thin. In India and Thailand a yellow dye has been obtained from leaves of M. edule, whereas a decoction of the leaves has been applied against gonorrhoea. The bark of the same species has been used for poulticing bruises. A decoction of the root of M. dichotomum has been used as a lotion for rheumatism and given internally after childbirth. Its leaves, pounded with cumin seeds and onions, have been used to poultice the head for vertigo, whereas the fruits stupefy fish.

There is no information on trade of the wood of Memecylon; utilization is probably on a local scale only.

Memecylon yields a heavy hardwood with a density of 770-1150 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood yellow-brown or brown to dark brown with a purplish tinge, not sharply demarcated from the sapwood; grain interlocked and sometimes irregular; texture fine or moderately fine and uneven due to the islands of included phloem. Growth rings indistinct, occasionally distinct; vessels moderately small to medium-sized, solitary, in radial multiples of 2-3, or in clusters of 2-3, in oblique or tangential arrangement, open or some filled with dark-coloured solid deposits; parenchyma moderately abundant, paratracheal vasicentric, aliform and infrequently confluent, linking up several vessels, microscopically diffuse and diffuse-in-aggregates parenchyma is visible; rays of two distinct sizes, very fine to medium-sized, the broader ones visible to the naked eye; ripple marks absent; islands of included phloem scattered, in transverse section 2-3 times the area of a vessel.
Shrinkage upon seasoning is low to very high. Boards 13 mm and 38 mm thick take respectively 3.5-4 months and 5-6 months to air dry with slight bowing, twisting or end-checking and with moderate insect attack during drying. The wood is hard to very hard and strong. It is easy to work and saw, but saw teeth are rapidly blunted. Planing is difficult, especially the radial surface which has a tendency to pick up. The wood is durable under cover, but not durable when exposed to the weather or in contact with the ground. An absorption of 128-226 kg/m³ was determined when treated in the open tank method with a mixture of 50% creosote and 50% fuel oil, the heartwood being almost impermeable and the sapwood very permeable in this test. The sapwood is very susceptible to Bostrychid borers but the heartwood is only slightly susceptible.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.

Shrubs or small to medium-sized trees, up to 25(-30) m tall; bole sometimes twisted, up to 100(-200) cm in diameter, often fluted, infrequently with buttresses; bark extremely thin, the surface very shallowly closely fissured or cracked, sometimes smooth and slightly scaly, grey or greyish-brown, inner bark thin, yellow or pinkish to orange or brown; branches terete or flattened, grooved, angled or winged. Leaves opposite, simple, entire, glabrous, with 1 main vein and straight or looping intramarginal veins, exstipulate. Flowers in an axillary or occasionally terminal cyme, sometimes paniculate or reduced to glomerules or umbels, 4-merous; calyx cup- to funnel-shaped with a truncate to shortly lobed margin; petals reflexed at anthesis and caducous after fertilization, white, pink, blue or purple; stamens 8, equal, anthers curved like a walking stick to crescent-shaped, opening with a vertical slit; ovary inferior and united with the calyx tube, unilocular with 2-20 ovules, style 1. Fruit a 1(-2)-seeded berry, ripening red, purplish or black, crowned by the persistent calyx, smooth or with 8 vertical grooves. Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons emergent and leafy; hypocotyl elongated; all leaves opposite.
M. edule develops according to Rauh's architectural tree model, determined by a monopodial trunk which grows rhythmically and so develops tiers of branches. The flowering-to-fruiting period of Memecylon sp. in a lowland dipterocarp forest in Peninsular Malaysia is about 13 weeks. The fruits are readily eaten and dispersed by birds, making it sometimes difficult to collect specimens with ripe fruits.
Memecylon belongs to the tribe Memecyleae within the subfamily Memecyloideae. The fairly common species M. oligoneurum Blume has recently been transferred to the genus Lijndenia; its correct name is L. laurina Zoll. & Moritzi.

Memecylon species are comparatively common, sometimes occurring gregariously in the lower part of the canopy of primary lowland to montane forest, up to 1800 m altitude. They are also found in freshwater and peat-swamp forest and kerangas. Some, e.g. M. edule, prefer more open forest or localities near the seashore.

Memecylon can be propagated by seed. In germination trials in Peninsular Malaysia fruits of M. cantleyi Ridley had a germination of about 35% in 36-56 days, whereas 8 seeds of M. intermedium all germinated in 23-49 days.

M. edule is recorded in a germplasm collection in Malaysia at the Rimba Ilmu of the University of Malaya. As most Memecylon species are rather rare with a restricted geographic distribution, the destruction of their natural habitat is probably a much greater threat than their utilization for timber.

Although Memecylon timber is of fairly good quality, its utilization is restricted due to the often poor form of the trees and their scarcity.

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Noorma Wati Haron

Memecylon acuminatum
Memecylon amplexicaule
Memecylon caeruleum
Memecylon campanulatum
Memecylon dichotomum
Memecylon edule
Memecylon excelsum
Memecylon floridum
Memecylon garcinioides
Memecylon intermedium
Memecylon lilacinum
Memecylon minutiflorum
Memecylon oleifolium
Memecylon paniculatum
Memecylon pubescens
Memecylon schraderbergense
Memecylon schumannianum

Haron, N.W., 1998. Memecylon L.. 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:
Memecylon acuminatum
Memecylon amplexicaule
Memecylon caeruleum
Memecylon campanulatum
Memecylon dichotomum
Memecylon edule
Memecylon excelsum
Memecylon floridum
Memecylon garcinioides
Memecylon intermedium
Memecylon lilacinum
Memecylon minutiflorum
Memecylon oleifolium
Memecylon paniculatum
Memecylon pubescens
Memecylon schraderbergense
Memecylon schumannianum