6027

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

Parinari Aubl.

Hist. pl. Guiane 1: 514, t. 204-206 (1775).

CHRYSOBALANACEAE

x = unknown; 2n = unknown

Merbatu (trade name). Parinari, sea beam (En). Brunei: baritu. Indonesia: kolaka (general). Malaysia: bangkawang (Sabah), nyalin, obah ngilas (Sarawak). Philippines: baritadiang (general). Burma (Myanmar): tauk-kade. Thailand: maphok.

Parinari comprises 39 species: 18 in the Neotropics, 6 in tropical Africa and 15 in tropical Asia from Indo-China and Thailand, throughout the Malesian region (13 species) towards northern Australia, Fiji and Samoa.

The wood of Parinari is used for medium and heavy construction under cover, posts, beams, parquet flooring, panelling and packaging for heavy articles. When treated it can be used for wharf decking, transmission posts and railway sleepers, dunnage, salt-water piling and other marine constructions. It provides a good fuelwood and excellent charcoal.
The fruits of several species are edible but apparently little used. The oil obtained from the seeds is used as lacquer and to coat paper umbrellas.

Parinari wood is probably traded in mixed consignments of medium-heavy hardwood, or together with that of the genera Atuna and Maranthes as "merbatu"". Supplies are generally limited, but fairly large amounts of P. papuana are exported from the Solomon Islands to Japan: 6.1% of the total log export from the Solomon Islands to Japan in 1987.

Parinari yields a medium-weight to heavy hardwood with a density of 630-1010 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood red-brown, sometimes with a yellow tinge and not clearly demarcated from the paler sapwood, sapwood up to 7 cm wide in P. papuana; grain straight to slightly interlocked; texture moderately coarse but even; wood sometimes slightly streaked, that of P. papuana slightly oily to the touch. Growth rings indistinct, occasionally visible as darker coloured bands of fibres with fewer vessels and less parenchyma; vessels medium-sized to very large, exclusively solitary, often in oblique arrangement, tyloses very rare; parenchyma moderately abundant (e.g. P. oblongifolia) to abundant (e.g. P. costata), apotracheal in narrow, more or less continuous bands, visible to the naked eye; rays very fine, only visible with a hand lens; ripple marks absent.
Shrinkage upon seasoning is moderate to high. Boards of P. costata 13 mm and 38 mm thick take respectively 1.5 and 3.5 months to air dry without serious degrade, but with some end-checking and risk of stain. It takes about 3 days to kiln dry 25 mm thick boards of P. papuana from green to 12% moisture content, and surface and end-checking are unavoidable. The wood is very abrasive and difficult to saw and work with hand and machine tools, has a rapidly blunting effect due to silica inclusions, and tends to pick up in planing. It splits easily, which is an advantage for its use for firewood. The wood is only moderately durable when exposed to the weather or in contact with the ground and it is easily attacked by termites. It is easy to treat: P. oblongifolia absorbs about 345 kg/m³ of a 50/50 mixture of creosote and diesel oil. The sapwood is occasionally attacked by pinhole borers or termites but is rarely susceptible to Lyctus.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.

Evergreen, small to large or very large trees up to 50(-60) m tall; bole straight, cylindrical, branchless for up to 25 m, up to 110 cm in diameter, buttresses small and steep or absent; bark surface smooth, characteristically lenticellate, becoming cracked or patchy, with adherent scales, grey to pale brown, inner bark characteristically hard and gritty, pink or orange to red-brown. Leaves arranged spirally, simple, entire, usually hairy below; petiole usually with 2 circular glands above; stipules present, caducous. Inflorescence a much-branched cyme or cymose panicle; bracteoles enclosing small groups of flowers. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, with a cup-shaped tomentose receptacle and 5 sepals; petals 5, white; stamens (6-)7-9(-10), inserted unilaterally on the margin of the disk; ovary inferior, inserted on the upper half of the receptacle tube, 2-locular with a single ovule in each cell, style arising from the base of the ovary. Fruit a fleshy drupe with hard endocarp, opening by a pair of basal plugs or stoppers to allow the seedling to escape. Seedling with hypogeal germination; cotyledons not emergent; hypocotyl not developed; epicotyl scaly, all leaves arranged spirally.
In West Java P. sumatrana flowers in June and July. The fruits are known to be dispersed by bats, elephants, primates, squirrels, fruit pigeons, pigs, cassowaries and fish.
The family Chrysobalanaceae is sometimes regarded as a subfamily of the Rosaceae. The Malesian species of Parinari are very uniform in flowers and inflorescences and are mainly identified by means of leaf characteristics. The name Parinarium is an erroneous orthographic variant of Parinari.

Most Parinari species occur in primary or occasionally secondary, evergreen, semi-evergreen or more rarely mixed deciduous to dry deciduous forest in the lowlands or on hills and ridges, often along rivers and streams, sometimes ascending into montane areas, up to 1400(-2000) m altitude. They occur scattered but may be locally common and usually prefer well-drained habitats. Few species are found in kerangas and swamp forest.

Parinari can be propagated by seed, the stone being the unit of sowing; there are about 165 stones in 1 kg. Stones of P. oblongifolia have about 70%, but germination does not start until 9 months after sowing, and the last seeds germinate after more than 3 years. Trees are shade-tolerant and under natural conditions seedlings establish in small numbers and grow up in primary forest.

Apart from trees incidentally cultivated in botanical gardens, there are no records of ex situ conservation of Parinari spp.

As Parinari timber is very difficult to saw, its use will probably remain limited to marine constructions and firewood.

[40]All Nippon Checkers Corporation, 1989. Illustrated commercial foreign woods in Japan. Tokyo. 262 pp.
[70]Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr., R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen.
[162]Burgess, P.F., 1966. Timbers of Sabah. Sabah Forest Records No 6. Forest Department, Sabah, Sandakan. xviii + 501 pp.
[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.
[198]Cockburn, P.F., 1976-1980. Trees of Sabah. 2 volumes. Sabah Forest Records No 10. Forest Department Sabah, Sandakan.
[209]Corner, E.J.H., 1988. Wayside trees of Malaya. 3rd edition. 2 volumes. The Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur. 774 pp.
[238]de Vogel, E.F., 1980. Seedlings of dicotyledons. Structure, development, types. Descriptions of 150 woody Malesian taxa. Pudoc, Wageningen. 465 pp.
[260]den Berger, L.G., 1926. Houtsoorten der cultuurgebieden van Java en Sumatra's oostkust [Tree species of the cultivated areas of Java and the east coast of Sumatra]. Mededeelingen No 13. Proefstation voor het Boschwezen, Buitenzorg. 186 pp.
[261]den Berger, L.G. & Endert, F.H., 1925. Belangrijke houtsoorten van Nederlandsch-Indië, deel I [Important timbers of the Dutch East Indies, part I]. Mededeelingen No 11. Proefstation voor het Boschwezen, Buitenzorg. 136 pp.
[267]Desch, H.E., 1941-1954. Manual of Malayan timbers. Malayan Forest Records No 15. 2 volumes. Malaya Publishing House Ltd., Singapore. 762 pp.
[341]Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.
[387]Grewal, G.S., 1979. Air-seasoning properties of some Malaysian timbers. Malaysian Forest Service Trade Leaflet No 41. Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Kuala Lumpur. 26 pp.
[405]Hardjowasono, M.S., 1942. Gewicht en volume van verschillende vrucht- en zaadsoorten [Weight and volume of various fruits and seeds]. Korte Mededelingen No 20. Bosbouwproefstation, Buitenzorg. 172 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.
[536]Keating, W.G. & Bolza, E., 1982. Characteristics, properties and uses of timbers. Vol. 1. South-East Asia, northern Australia and the Pacific. Inkata Press Proprietary Ltd., Melbourne, Sydney & London. 362 pp.
[616]Kostermans, A.J.G.H., 1965. A monograph of the genus Parinari Aubl. (Rosaceae-Chrysobalanoideae) in Asia and the Pacific region. Reinwardtia 7: 147-213.
[677]Lee, Y.H. & Chu, Y.P., 1965. The strength properties of Malayan timbers. Malayan Forester 28: 307-319.
[678]Lee, Y.H., Engku Abdul Rahman bin Chik & Chu, Y.P., 1979. The strength properties of some Malaysian timbers. Malaysian Forest Service Trade Leaflet No 34 (revised edition). Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Kuala Lumpur. 107 pp.
[705]Lim, S.C., 1985. Lesser known timbers - XIII. Merbatu. Timber Digest No 75. Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong. 3 pp.
[741]Malaysian Timber Industry Board, 1986. 100 Malaysian timbers. Kuala Lumpur. x + 226 pp.
[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.
[831]Ng, F.S.P. & Mat Asri Ngah Sanah, 1991. Germination and seedling records. Research Pamphlet No 108. Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong. 191 pp.
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[903]Prance, G.T., 1987. Notulae de chrysobalanaceis malesianis praecursoriae. Brittonia 39: 364-370.
[905]Prance, G.T. & White, F., 1988. The genera of Chrysobalanaceae: a study in practical and theoretical taxonomy and its relevance to evolutionary biology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B. Biological Sciences 320: 1-184.
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[1038]Smitinand, T., 1980. Thai plant names. Royal Forest Department, Bangkok. 379 pp.
[1048]Soepadmo, E., Wong, K.M. & Saw, L.G. (Editors), 1995-. Tree flora of Sabah and Sarawak. Sabah Forestry Department, Forest Research Institute Malaysia and Sarawak Forestry Department, Kepong.
[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.
[1239]Wong, T.M., 1976. Wood structure of the lesser known timbers of Peninsular Malaysia. Malayan Forest Records No 28. Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong. xi + 115 pp.
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C. Phengklai

Parinari argenteo-sericea
Parinari canarioides
Parinari costata
Parinari elmeri
Parinari oblongifolia
Parinari papuana
Parinari rigida
Parinari sumatrana

Phengklai, C., 1998. Parinari Aubl.. 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:
Parinari argenteo-sericea
Parinari canarioides
Parinari costata
Parinari elmeri
Parinari oblongifolia
Parinari papuana
Parinari rigida
Parinari sumatrana