Falcatifolium (PROSEA)
Introduction |
Falcatifolium de Laubenf.
- Protologue: Journ. Arn. Arb. 50: 308 (1969).
- Family: Podocarpaceae
- Chromosome number: x= unknown
Trade groups
Sempilor: lightweight softwood, e.g. Falcatifolium falciforme (Parl.) de Laubenf.
The timber is traded as sempilor together with that of Dacrydium and Phyllocladus .
Vernacular names
- Sempilor
- Indonesia: melur (general), kayu alau (Kalimantan)
- Malaysia: ekor sabit (Peninsular), kayu china (Lahad Datu, Sabah), iguh gawah (Iban, Sarawak)
- Philippines: binaton (general).
Origin and geographic distribution
Falcatifolium consists of 5 species, 4 of which occur within the Malesian area; the fifth is found on New Caledonia. Within Malesia, species occur in Peninsular Malaysia, the Riau-Lingga Archipelago, Borneo, the Philippines, Sulawesi, the Moluccas (Obi) and New Guinea.
Uses
The wood of Falcatifolium is used as timber of the sempilor trade group for light construction, furniture, joinery, mouldings, light traffic flooring, door and window frames, masts, interior finish, novelties, veneers and crates.
Production and international trade
There is no doubt that, Falcatifolium timber is sometimes traded as sempilor together with the timber of Dacrydium and Phyllocladus . However, as the species are generally uncommon and the trees usually do not reach a large size, the contribution of Falcatifolium to the trade group is probably small.
Properties
Falcatifolium yields a lightweight softwood. The heartwood is pale yellowish-brown to golden-brown and not clearly demarcated from the paler sapwood. The grain is straight, texture fine and even.
Data on physical and mechanical properties are not available, but these are probably comparable to Dacrydium and Phyllocladus . The wood is easy to work. It is not durable and should not be used exposed to the weather or in contact with the ground unless it has been treated with preservatives; it is probably easy to impregnate.
The mean fibre length of F. gruezoi is 3625μm.
Description
Dioecious, fairly large trees up to 36 m tall, but usually much less, rarely shrubs; bole cylindrical; bark thin, more or less smooth, brownish or purple-brown with scattered lenticels, occasionally flaking in larger specimens, inner bark reddish; branching loose and irregular. Juvenile and adult leaves arranged spirally or falcately curved away from the branch into one plane (distichous), alternating with elongated appressed scales, flattened, acute, with a single vein. Fertile structures on short scaly, axillary or terminal shoots. Pollen cones solitary or clustered, cylindrical; microsporophyll a small acuminate spur above the two pollen sacs. Seed-bearing structures solitary, consisting of up to about a dozen large acuminate scales which become swollen, fleshy and red when mature; 1 subapical scale fertile; the inverted ovule turning upwards at maturity, seed exposed; mature seed nearly erect, ovoid, with 2 lateral weak ridges along its wider sides.
Wood anatomy
- Macroscopic characters:
Heartwood pale yellowish-brown to golden-brown, not clearly demarcated from the paler sapwood. Grain straight, texture fine and even; wood with little or no figure. Growth rings indistinct; diffuse parenchyma present but sometimes not evident to the naked eye; rays very fine, invisible to the naked eye.
- Microscopic characters:
Tracheids polygonal, square, rounded to irregular in cross-section, radially aligned, tangential diameter approximately 40-50μm, 3-6 mm long; intertracheid pits mainly in radial walls, in single (rarely double) rows, rounded, rarely flattened, 14-18μm in diameter, crassulae occasionally present; pits in tangential walls rare and smaller; parenchyma moderately abundant, with smooth end walls. Rays 6-9/mm, predominantly uniseriate, biseriate rays rare, (1-)4-8(-12) cells high; ray cells with smooth end walls; ray-tracheid pits mainly cupressoid to sometimes piceoid, larger in marginal cells, 1-2(-3) per crossfield, 8-12μm in diameter. Reddish-brown extraneous material present in parenchyma cells.
Species studied: F. falciforme , F. papuanum .
Wood of Agathis , Nageia , Phyllocladus , Podocarpus and Prumnopitys is similar to that of Falcatifolium . Agathis differs by having alternate intertracheid pits. In Phyllocladus and Prumnopitys parenchyma is absent. However, Nageia and Podocarpus are very similar.
Other botanical information
The species accommodated within Falcatifolium were formerly treated as belonging to Dacrydium . They are distinct from the latter genus by their bilaterally flattened leaves, by their fertile structures being positioned on short scaly shoots and by the exposed base of the seed.
Ecology
Falcatifolium is locally common along ridges, often in comparatively exposed locations or in the subcanopy of primary rain forest and sometimes also in kerangas forest. Occasionally, the trees occur as emergents on deeper fertile soils. In Papua New Guinea, Falcatifolium is a locally common element of the montane Nothofagus forest. The altitudinal range lies between 400 and 2400 m.
Silviculture and management
Natural regeneration of F. falciforme is sparse in kerangas forest in Borneo, abundant in half-open stands and absent in open sites. In mountainous Fagaceous forest and in cloud forest more natural regeneration is observed in open forest stands.
Genetic resources
No efforts are being made to preserve the genetic variability of Falcatifolium . F. falciforme , F. gruezoi and F. papuanum are probably not in direct danger of genetic erosion, as they occur in mountainous areas and are not subjected to extensive logging because the trees are often small. The fourth Malesian species, F. angustum de Laubenf., is known from only 2 collections in lowland forest near the coast in Sarawak and might be endangered.
Prospects
As the timber quality of Falcatifolium is as good as that of other genera in the sempilor trade group ( Dacrydium and Phyllocladus ), it may be increasingly used and traded in the near future.
Literature
- Aguilar, L., 1939. Fiber length of Philippine coniferous woods. Philippine Journal of Forestry 2: 277-286.
- Browne, F.G., 1955. Forest trees of Sarawak and Brunei and their products. Government Printing Office, Kuching, Sarawak. p. 295.
- Corner, E.J.H., 1988. Wayside trees of Malaya. Third edition. Vol. 2. Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur. p. 769.
- Dallimore, W. & Jackson, A.B., 1966. A handbook of Coniferae and Ginkgoaceae. Edward Arnold Ltd., London. pp. 509-554.
- de Laubenfels, D.J., 1969. A revision of the Malesian and Pacific rainforest conifers. I. Podocarpaceae, in part. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 50: 274-314.
- de Laubenfels, D.J., 1978. The taxonomy of Philippine Coniferae and Taxaceae. Kalikasan, Philippine Journal of Biology 7: 117-152.
- de Laubenfels, D.J., 1988. Coniferales. In: van Steenis, C.G.G.J. & de Wilde, W.J.J.O. (Editors): Flora Malesiana. Ser. 1, Vol. 10. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London. pp. 337-453.
- Gaussen, H., 1974. Les Gymnospermes actuelles et fossiles. Chapter 20: les Coniférales 12. Les Podocapacées autres que Podocarpus ss. [Present and fossile gymnosperms. Chapter 20: The Coniferales 12. The Podocarpaceae excluding Podocarpus ss.]. Traveaux du Laboratoire Forestier de Toulouse. Tom. 2,Etudes Dendrologiques. Vol. 1, part. II-3. pp. 67-78.
- Johns, R.J., 1983. Common forest trees of Papua New Guinea. Part one: the Gymnosperms. Revised edition. Forestry Department, PNG University of Technology, Lae. 42 pp.
- Keng, H., 1983. Coniferae. In: Whitmore, T.C. (Editor): Tree flora of Malaya. A manual for foresters. 2nd edition. Vol. 1. Forest Research Institute Malaysia. Longman Malaysia SDN. Berhad, Kuala Lumpur. pp. 39-53.
Selection of species