6511

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

Ziziphus Mill.

Gard. dict., abr. ed. 4 (1754).

RHAMNACEAE

x = 12; Z. mauritiana: 2n = 24, 48, 60, 72, 96

Indonesia: bidara, widara. Malaysia: bedara, bidara (Peninsular). Thailand: phutsan. Vietnam: t[as]o ta.

Ziziphus comprises about 100 species and has a pantropical distribution centred in tropical America and South-East Asia. It extends into temperate and even arid regions. About 25 species occur within Malesia.

The wood of Ziziphus is used for general construction, furniture and cabinet work, tool handles, turnery, household utensils, bowling pins, baseball bats, chisels and packaging. It is suitable for the production of veneer and plywood.
Several species, notably Z. jujuba Mill. and Z. mauritiana, are widely cultivated for their edible fruits. In Indonesia young leaves of Z. mauritiana are cooked as a vegetable and also serve as fodder. In India and in Indonesia it is used to rear lac insects. Its bark and fruit yield a dye. The roots, bark, leaves, seeds and fruits of Z. mauritiana are all applied medicinally, in particular to aid digestion and to poultice wounds. It is a well-known firewood in semi-arid regions. In the Philippines Z. talanai is planted as an ornamental.

Supplies of Ziziphus wood are very small. In the Philippines it may be found mixed with "white seraya"" (Parashorea spp.) or in consignments of "white miscellaneous"".

Ziziphus yields a medium-weight to heavy hardwood with a density of 535-1180 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content; the wood of Z. talanai is of medium density and Z. celtidifolia yields a heavy wood. Heartwood buff-coloured, pale red or brown to dark brown, sometimes banded or with dark streaks, not sharply demarcated from the pale brown sapwood; grain straight, occasionally wavy; texture fine to coarse; wood fairly lustrous. Growth rings indistinct but some species exhibit bands of woody tissue with relatively few vessels; vessels medium-sized, solitary and in radial multiples of 2-5, occasionally in clusters, open; parenchyma paratracheal aliform to confluent, distinct, and apotracheal in marginal, interrupted bands, the latter type indistinct; rays extremely fine; ripple marks absent.
The wood seasons well but may split slightly during seasoning. It is moderately hard to hard and strong to very strong. It is easy to work and takes a high finish. It is reported as non-durable to durable when exposed to the weather or in contact with the ground, but in a graveyard test in the Philippines the average service life of test stakes of Z. talanai was only 1 year. Some species are moderately resistant to insect attack, the heartwood of Z. talanai is susceptible to dry-wood termites. Its sapwood is susceptible to Lyctus.
The gross energy value of Z. talanai is 18 285-19 560 kJ/kg.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.

Deciduous or evergreen, woody climbers, erect or straggling shrubs or small to medium-sized trees up to 33 m tall; bole straight or crooked, branchless for up to 20 m, up to 70(-120) cm in diameter, sometimes with small to fairly large buttresses; bark surface smooth, greyish, with densely spaced lenticels, sometimes with large pyramidal spines; inner bark yellow to brownish or bright orange near cambium layer. Leaves alternate, simple, entire or serrate to crenate, generally 3-veined from the base; stipules caducous or transformed into spines. Flowers in a small axillary fascicle or umbel-like cyme, rarely in an axillary or terminal thyrse, perigynous; sepals 5; petals 5 or rarely absent, hooded, yellowish to greenish; disk fleshy, 5-10-lobed; stamens 5, opposite the petals; ovary semi-inferior, 2-3(-4)-locular with 1 ovule in each cell, styles 2-4. Fruit a fleshy to almost dry, 1-seeded drupe; endocarp hard. Seed nearly plano-convex. Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons emergent, fleshy; hypocotyl elongated; first leaves opposite or whorled, subsequent ones alternate, conduplicate.
In trials in West Java the mean annual increment of 10.5-year-old Z. celtidifolia trees was 0.8-1.5 m in height and 0.9-1.8 cm in diameter, the faster-growing trees originating from seed from North Sulawesi, the slower-growing trees from seed from Timor. In India the annual diameter increment of Z. mauritiana as determined from wood samples is 0.8-1.3 cm; in semi-arid regions it is one of the most rapidly growing trees. In South-East Asia Z. mauritiana flowers concurrently with shoot growth in the wet season. The nectar produced by the disk and the fragrance of the flowers attract insects. Flowers are protandrous. The fruits take 4-6 months to mature; they are dispersed by mammals and birds.
The name Ziziphus is often erroneously written as Zizyphus.

Timber-yielding Ziziphus species are found scattered in lowland, primary or secondary rain forest or thickets, up to 1000 m altitude. Z. mauritiana can cope with extreme temperatures and thrives under semi-arid conditions. It prefers light, deep soils, but can grow on alkaline to slightly acid, saline, heavy, and occasionally waterlogged soils.

Ziziphus can be propagated by seed (including direct sowing) and by transplanting root suckers; propagation by cuttings failed. Grafting is used for cultivars of Z. mauritiana for fruit production. The following seed counts are available from Indonesia: Z. celtidifolia with about 33 000 dry seeds/kg and Z. mauritiana 3300 dry pyrenes/kg. The germination rate of Z. mauritiana seed increases during the first year of storage. In Indonesia it is recommended to sow seeds or pyrenes of Z. celtidifolia in the shade but in India Z. mauritiana seeds do not germinate when sown in even slight shade. Pyrenes in pulp of Z. calophylla Wallich ex Hook. f. show only about 5% germination in 33-254 days but Z. celtidifolia seeds germinate well. In India stumps of Z. mauritiana with 5 cm shoot and 15 cm root length are used as planting stock. Z. mauritiana coppices and pollards well and it forms root suckers. The root system of Z. celtidifolia is very resistant to oxygen deficiency e.g. in the case of waterlogging.

In India about 125 cultivars of Z. mauritiana are grown for their fruits.

The use of Ziziphus timber is unlikely to increase in the near future.

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S.I. Wiselius

Ziziphus angustifolius
Ziziphus celtidifolia
Ziziphus hutchinsonii
Ziziphus mauritiana
Ziziphus talanai
Ziziphus trinervia

Wiselius, S.I., 1998. Ziziphus Mill.. 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:
Ziziphus angustifolius
Ziziphus celtidifolia
Ziziphus hutchinsonii
Ziziphus mauritiana
Ziziphus talanai
Ziziphus trinervia