Kibatalia (PROSEA Timbers)
Introduction |
Kibatalia G. Don
- Protologue: Gen. syst. 4: 86 (1837).
- Family: Apocynaceae
- Chromosome number: x= unknown; 2n= unknown
Vernacular names
- Indonesia: kayu santen (Javanese), ki benteli (Sundanese)
- Malaysia: jelutong pipit (Peninsular)
- Philippines: lanete (trade name which includes Wrightia spp.)
- Thailand: ba-du-bu-wae (peninsular).
Origin and geographic distribution
Kibatalia comprises 15 species and is restricted to South-East Asia where it is found from southern China (Yunnan) to Indo-China, peninsular Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Philippines and Sulawesi. Although only 2 species are confined to continental Asia, it is assumed that the genus originated from there and spread to the Malesian region afterwards.
Uses
The wood of Kibatalia is used for medium-heavy construction under cover, but more often for small objects like musical instruments, picture frames, fixtures, pencil slats, toothpicks, knife sheaths, spools, polo balls, checker boards and pieces, tennis rackets, axe handles, sabre sheaths and wooden shoes. The timber is probably also suitable for cabinet making, fancy boxes, carvings, household utensils, pattern making and matches. The wood is occasionally used as firewood.
The latex of several species has medicinal properties and has been used against stomach disorder or worm diseases. In the Philippines the leaves are applied for spleenomegaly. The flowers are cooked and eaten as a vegetable. In Vietnam the latex of K. anceps (Dunn & R. Williams) Woodson has potential to treat haemorrhage.
Production and international trade
In the Philippines "lanete", of which Kibatalia wood probably makes up only a minor portion, reaches the market in the form of small logs 20-30 cm in diameter and 1.5-2 m long. Otherwise, it is usually processed locally and used particularly for carving.
Properties
Kibatalia yields a lightweight to medium-weight hardwood with a density of 385-610 kg/m3at 15% moisture content. Heartwood white, not clearly differentiated from the white to pale yellow sapwood; grain straight; texture fine and even. Growth rings occasionally just visible or distinct; vessels moderately small, mostly in radial multiples of 3-4, open; parenchyma moderately abundant, apotracheal in marginal or seemingly marginal bands, and diffuse tending to form tangential bands, visible with a hand lens; rays very fine to moderately fine, visible with a hand lens; ripple marks absent.
Shrinkage upon seasoning is low, but the wood needs to be dried rapidly to prevent stain. The wood is soft and very easy to work. It is not durable (not recommended for permanent use) and it is readily attacked by sap-staining fungi.
The bark contains several medicinally potential alkaloids.
See also the tables on microscopic wood anatomy and wood properties.
Botany
- Evergreen or sometimes deciduous shrubs or small to large trees up to 45(-65) m tall; bole straight, branchless for up to 30(-40) m, up to 120 cm in diameter, sometimes with short buttresses up to 1.5 m high; bark surface smooth to fissured or sometimes cracked, lenticellate, grey-brown to black, sometimes mottled, inner bark granular, orange to white, often mottled, with copious white latex.
- Leaves decussate, simple, entire, often with domatia underneath, petioles of a pair connate to form a short cup.
- Flowers in a terminal or axillary, cymose cluster, 5-merous; calyx lobes imbricate, mostly with colleters inside at base; corolla gamopetalous, white to pale green, with a narrow tube, the lobes overlapping to the right in bud; stamens inserted on the corolla tube, anthers narrowly triangular with a sagittate base, adhering to the pistil head; disk present; ovary superior, 2-carpellate with free carpels and many ovules.
- Fruits consisting of 2 narrowly ellipsoid or cylindrical follicles with seeds in 2 ranks.
- Seed pointed or beaked, with a tuft of hairs.
Annual diameter increment of K. arborea in Java is about 2 cm. Flowering and fruiting seem to occur throughout the year, but in Java K. arborea flowers in June-July or October just after the leaves are shed. Dispersal of the seed bearing a coma is presumably by wind.
Kibatalia belongs to the tribe Nerieae of the subfamily Apocynoideae.
Ecology
Kibatalia species are found scattered in the canopy or subcanopy layer of lowland and lower montane, primary rain forest on well-drained places like slopes, sometimes along streams or in swamp forest, up to 500(-1200) m altitude. They are found on a wide variety of soil types including sandy soils, limestone and volcanic soils. Occasionally individual species are found in freshwater swamp forest and savannas.
Silviculture
Kibatalia can be raised from seed, although there are no precise data available.
Genetic resources and breeding
There are no records of Kibatalia species in seed or germplasm banks. Trees are fairly common in the forest and are incidentally cultivated in botanical gardens. Local utilization can be, however, quite intensive and may deplete particular populations.
Prospects
Kibatalia will probably continue to serve as a special purpose timber for small and decorative articles. The wood properties are similar to "pulai" (Alstonia spp.) and potential uses are many and promising. Moreover, as K. arborea seems to show rapid growth, it is a potential timber plantation tree.
Literature
61, 267, 438, 672, 780, 861, 964, 965, 974, 1038, 1175, 1201, 1221, 1242, 1247.