6287

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

Siphonodon Griffith

Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist. 4: 246, t. 14 (1844).

CELASTRACEAE

x = unknown; 2n = unknown

Indonesia: danoklot kepu (Javanese), indohe hapute (Muna, Sulawesi), ki singuguh kayu (Sundanese). Malaysia: kalantaid (Sabah). Papua New Guinea: ivru wood (En). Philippines: malagsak (Filipino). Burma (Myanmar): myauk-okshit. Thailand: ma duk (general), yai pluak (peninsular). Vietnam: sang d[as], x[uw]ng da.

Siphonodon comprises about 7 species occurring in India, Burma (Myanmar), Vietnam, Thailand, throughout the Malesian region, and Australia. Two species are found within Malesia of which only 1, S. celastrineus Griffith (synonyms: S. pyriformis Merr., Xanthophyllum subglobosum Elmer), yields timber. It is widespread from India to the whole of the Malesian region.

The wood of S. celastrineus is used for construction (posts), turnery, interior finish and utensils, but is also suitable for carving, engraving, drawing instruments and rulers. It is also used as firewood.
The fruits of S. celastrineus are edible.

The wood of S. celastrineus is probably used only locally.

Siphonodon yields a medium-weight hardwood with a density of 735-780 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. Heartwood cream or pale brown to yellowish-brown, not clearly demarcated from the straw-coloured sapwood; grain straight or slightly interlocked; texture fine and even. Growth rings indistinct; vessels small, not visible to the naked eye, solitary and in radial multiples of 2-3, open, occasional white deposits present; parenchyma indistinct; rays moderately broad, distinct to the naked eye.
The wood is fairly strong, hard and moderately durable when exposed to the weather or in contact with the ground. It splits easily.
See also the table on microscopic wood anatomy.

A medium-sized to fairly large, glabrous tree up to 40 m tall; bole fairly straight, up to 90 cm in diameter, usually with small buttresses up to 2 m high or sometimes spurred; bark surface smooth to shallowly cracked, sometimes flaky or peeling off in small scales, grey to grey-brown, inner bark hard, mottled white with pale yellow. Leaves arranged spirally, simple, shallowly crenate; stipules minute, caducous. Flowers in an axillary, cymose inflorescence, sometimes solitary, 5-merous; calyx lobes imbricate; petals imbricate, cream-white; stamens curved inward, filaments flat, united at base; disk circular; ovary superior, half sunken in disk, 10-locular, each locule divided into 2-4 superposed, 1-ovulate cells, style rising from a cavity at the apex of the ovary. Fruit drupaceous, hard or fleshy, with 1-seeded stones. Seed flat, with membranous testa. Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons emergent, leafy; hypocotyl elongated; all leaves arranged spirally.
During the first 5 years growth is reputed to be slow, becoming fairly rapid in subsequent years. In Borneo S. celastrineus flowers from March-November.
Siphonodon is a rather aberrant genus within the family Celastraceae, and has even been proposed to constitute a family of its own.

S. celastrineus occurs scattered in primary rain forest up to 1300(-1600) m altitude. In the Moluccas it has been observed as a dominant tree associated with e.g. Vitex cofassus Reinw. ex Blume, Pangium edule Reinw., and Intsia, Pometia, Ficus and Nauclea species.

S. celastrineus can be propagated by seed. Natural regeneration in natural forest is poor, but will be greatly enhanced by opening of the canopy. It is resistant to fire.

Although S. celastrineus is rare, it has a very wide geographical distribution and as the wood is not extensively used, the risk of genetic erosion is low. There are no records of Siphonodon in seed or germplasm banks, but trees are occasionally cultivated in botanical gardens.

The limited use of Siphonodon timber is unlikely to change in the near future.

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[174]Cay go rung Viet nam [Forest trees of Vietnam] (various editors), 1971-1988. Agriculture Publisher, Hanoi.
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[238]de Vogel, E.F., 1980. Seedlings of dicotyledons. Structure, development, types. Descriptions of 150 woody Malesian taxa. Pudoc, Wageningen. 465 pp.
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[883]Pham Hoang Ho, 1991-1993. An illustrated flora of Vietnam. 2 Volumes. Mekong Publisher, Montreal.
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[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.
[1232]Wisse, J.H., 1965. Volumegewichten van een aantal houtmonsters uit West Nieuw Guinea [Specific gravity of some wood samples from West New Guinea]. Afdeling Bosexploitatie en Boshuishoudkunde, Landbouwhogeschool, Wageningen. 23 pp.

Nguyen Tien Ban

Ban, N.T., 1998. Siphonodon Griffith. 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