Terminalia complanata (PROSEA)
Introduction |
Terminalia complanata K. Schumann
- Protologue: K. Schumann & Hollrung, Fl. Kais. Wilh. Land: 83 (1889).
Distribution
New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands; possibly also in the Moluccas and northern Queensland (Australia).
Uses
The wood is used in Papua New Guinea as pale yellow terminalia, e.g. for flooring, light construction, interior finish, mouldings and veneer. The wood has been reported to contain a yellow dye.
Observations
A large tree up to 50 m tall, bole straight, with simple or branched buttresses up to 3 m high, bark surface grey, yellow-brown or reddish-brown; leaves usually elliptical, sometimes obovate or oblong, 5-11(-13) cm × 1.5-5 cm, tapering at base, soon glabrescent above, hairy on the veins below, with (7-)9-15 pairs of secondary veins, petiole 7-15 mm long; flowers in an axillary spike 7-14 cm long, calyx tube sericeous; fruit ellipsoid or more or less globose, slightly flattened when ripe, 1.4-2.1 cm × 1.1-1.9 cm, silky hairy but glabrescent, fleshy and not winged. T. complanata is locally dominant in riverine swamp forest, but does occur in other forest types, also on ridges, up to 1500 m altitude. The density of the pale yellow wood is 460-600 kg/m3at 12% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.
Selected sources
145, 162, 289, 666, 715, 718.