Bulnesia arborea
Bulnesia arborea | ||||||||||||
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Bulnesia arborea |
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Bulnesia arborea | ||||||||||||
( Jacq. ) Engl. |
Bulnesia arborea is a species of the Bulnesia genus withinthe zygophyllaceae family .
description
Bulnesia arborea is an evergreen , slow-growing tree that reaches heights of between 9 and 13 meters (in extreme cases up to 30 meters). Fully grown trees are often unbranched on the lower 4.5 to 6 meters. Above it, the tree is widely ramified with drooping branches that can almost reach the ground. The trunk diameter reaches up to 50 centimeters or more. The tree carries a resin .
The opposite leaves on the branches are up to 12 centimeters long and alternately pinnate in pairs with 5 to 9 pairs of sessile, glabrous leaflets . The lanceolate to elongated, about 2–4 centimeters long, often somewhat asymmetrical leaflets have entire margins and rounded to rounded, rarely pointed. The nerve is palmate. There are small stipules present.
Small, short, axillary or terminal, racemose , zymous inflorescences are formed or the flowers appear individually. The hermaphroditic and orange-yellow flowers , about 3 centimeters in diameter, have radial symmetry and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The five nailed petals have a rounded plate . There are 10 stamens , with a toothed to slashed, bag-shaped appendage at the base. The five-edged, -fächrige ovary is upper constant with a relatively short pen . There is an angled discus .
The five-winged, yellow-brownish, bald, approximately 4–4.5 cm large "wing capsule " ( capsule fruit , split fruit ) contains five single-seeded, flat and winged partial fruits (mericarpies).
distribution
The natural Neotropical range extends from the Antilles across Central America to the north of South America , Colombia and Venezuela . It thrives in xerophytic ecosystems.
use
The very heavy, very durable wood , ironwood , from Bulnesia arborea is not unlike the pockwood from trees of the Guaiacum genus and is sometimes marketed under the name Maracaibo pockwood or veraholz , Verawood and "Lignum vitae". With a bulk density of 0.92 to 1.1, it is somewhat lighter than real pockwood. However, the trading volume is very small.
Botanical history
Bulnesia arborea was Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin in 1763 under the name Zygophyllum arboreum first described . In 1890 the species was placed in the genus Bulnesia by Adolf Engler . Another synonym is Guaiacum arboreum (Jacq.) DC.
swell
- Doug Caldwell: Verawood Bulnesia arborea In: Naples Daily News. June 28, 2008 (English) ( Memento of 21 August 2016 Internet Archive ) (PDF).
- HG Richter, MJ Dallwitz: Bulnesia arborea . In: Commercial timbers: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval . 2000 ( online [accessed August 11, 2011]).
- Dairon Cárdenas López, Nelson R. Salinas: Bulnesia arborea Engl., Catálogo de la biodiversidad de Colombia, 2007 (Spanish) ( Memento from January 1, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ).
- Martin Chudnoff: Tropical Timbers of the World. Agriculture Handbook 607, USDA Forest Service, 1984, pp. 33, 85, limited preview in Google book search.
- T. Lasser: Las Zygophyllaceas Venezolanas. In: Bulletin du Jardin botanique de l'État a Bruxelles. Vol. 27, Fasc. 3, 1957, pp. 381-390, JSTOR 43781817 .
- K. Kubitzki : The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol.IX : Flowering Plants Eudicots , Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-32214-6 , p. 494.
Web links
- Bulnesia arborea at Useful Tropical Plants.