5865

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

Mezzettia Becc.

Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital. 3: 187 (1871).

ANNONACEAE

x = 7; M. parviflora: 2n = 14

Mempisang (trade name). Brunei: karai, kepayang babi. Malaysia: karai (Sabah), kepayang babi (Sarawak).

Mezzettia comprises 4 species and occurs in the Andaman Islands, peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and the Moluccas. All 4 are present within Malesia.

The wood of Mezzettia is used for light construction, interior finish, planking, packing cases, matchboxes and splints, and crates. It also produces a good-quality sliced as well as rotary veneer and plywood, and is used as fuelwood.
The fibrous bark is occasionally used for making rope.

"Mempisang"" is a general trade name comprising most of the genera of Annonaceae, and Mezzettia probably comprises a fair proportion of the wood traded under this name. In 1992 the export of mempisang wood from Sabah amounted to 25 000 m³ of sawn timber and 42 500 m³ of logs with a total value of about US$ 7.2 million. Small amounts of mempisang are imported by Japan, mainly from Sabah and Sarawak.

Mezzettia yields a lightweight to medium-weight hardwood with a density of 420-755 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood yellow-brown, sometimes moderately sharply differentiated from the paler sapwood; grain straight; texture rather coarse and uneven; rays appear as orange-brown-coloured streaks. Growth rings usually indistinct, when distinct boundaries indicated by denser tissue; vessels medium-sized to moderately large, solitary and in radial multiples of 2-6, open; parenchyma abundant, apotracheal in regular, narrow bands (scalariform), and paratracheal scanty or vasicentric but indistinct; rays of 2 sizes, very fine few, and moderately broad to very broad; ripple marks absent.
Shrinkage upon air drying is high and the wood air dries very rapidly: 13 and 38 mm thick boards of M. parviflora take respectively 1.5 and 2 months to air dry. There is moderate risk of cupping, insect attack and stain and a slight risk of splitting during seasoning. The wood is moderately soft but fairly strong. It is easy to work. The wood is non-durable and susceptible to sap-stain, but apparently fairly resistant to insect attack when dry. Wood of M. parviflora absorbs copper-chrome-arsenic (CCA) preservatives readily when pressure treated, with an absorption of 430 kg/m³.
Extracts of wood from Mezzettia spp. have insecticidal properties: when the dry-wood termite Cryptotermes cynocephalus was exposed to filter paper treated with wood extracts, mortality was 55-75% after 8 weeks.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.

Evergreen, small to large trees up to 45 m tall; bole straight, cylindrical, branchless for up to 25 m, up to 80(-110) cm in diameter, sometimes fluted or with small buttresses up to 60 cm high; bark surface rough with irregular cracks, sometimes dippled, flaking off, grey to brown, inner bark fibrous, orange-brown, with a dark line between inner and outer bark. Leaves distichous, simple, entire, leathery, dull or glaucous below, exstipulate. Flowers in an axillary fascicle or umbel, bisexual; sepals 3, valvate, free or connate up to halfway; petals 6, in 2 whorls, valvate, the inner ones smaller than the outer, yellowish-green; stamens 9-21, in 2-3 whorls, connective dilated over the locules; carpel 1, with 2 superimposed ovules, tapering into the stigma. Fruit apocarpous, the single monocarp sessile or on a short stipe, globose to ellipsoid or obovoid, with a woody wall and (1-)2 seeds. Seed smooth, flattened on one side, with a hard testa. Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons not emergent; hypocotyl elongated; all leaves distichous; shoots plagiotropic.
Mezzettia retains its monopodial architecture even when mature. In Peninsular Malaysia M. parviflora is observed flowering and fruiting in mast fruiting years. The seeds are probably eaten and dispersed by monkeys.
Mezzettia can be readily distinguished from other Annonaceae genera by its single carpel with 2 ovules, but its relationship with other genera within this family remains uncertain.

Mezzettia species grow under perhumid conditions in evergreen, primary, lowland rain forest, up to 500(-1100) m altitude. They are usually found in dipterocarp forest or swamp forest on level land as well as on hills, often on peaty or podzolic, sandy soils. M. parviflora also occurs in kerangas.

Mezzettia can be propagated by seed. Seeds of M. parviflora sown with or without adhering pulp show 15-20% germination in 2.5-4.5 months.

There are no records of Mezzettia in germplasm banks. As Mezzettia is not rare the risk of genetic erosion is probably low.

The good wood properties of Mezzettia for the production of veneer and plywood may hold some potential for the future.

[14]Ahmad Said, S. & Rahim, S., 1986. Response of drywood termite, Cryptotermes cynocephalus (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) to extracts from five Malaysian hardwoods. Malaysian Forester 49: 470-475.
[40]All Nippon Checkers Corporation, 1989. Illustrated commercial foreign woods in Japan. Tokyo. 262 pp.
[151]Browne, F.G., 1955. Forest trees of Sarawak and Brunei and their products. Government Printing Office, Kuching, Sarawak. xviii + 369 pp.
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[829]Ng, F.S.P., 1991-1992. Manual of forest fruits, seeds and seedlings. 2 volumes. Malayan Forest Record No 34. Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong. 997 pp.
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E. Boer (general part), M.S.M. Sosef (general part, selection of species)

Mezzettia havilandii
Mezzettia macrocarpa
Mezzettia parviflora
Mezzettia umbellata

Boer, E. & Sosef, M.S.M., 1998. Mezzettia Becc.. 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:
Mezzettia havilandii
Mezzettia macrocarpa
Mezzettia parviflora
Mezzettia umbellata