Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum
| Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum | ||||||||||||
| ( Vermoesen ) Harms |
Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum is a plant from the genus Gossweilerodendron in the subfamily of caesalpinioideae (Caesalpinioideae) within the family of the Leguminosae (Fabaceae). Thespecies, which iswidespreadin West and Central Africa , provides an important construction timber , which in German-speaking countries iscalled Tola .
Description and ecology
Appearance and bark
Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum is a large, deciduous or evergreen tree that reaches heights of growth of 60 to 70 meters and a diameter of 150 to 300 centimeters at chest height , but is usually around 40 meters high. It has an open, hemispherical and wide, but relatively small treetop and winding branches. No buttress roots are formed. The trunk, which is usually 20 to 25 meters to a maximum of 35 meters long, is usually straight and cylindrical, but branches out much earlier if there is enough space available.
The resinous bark is relatively thin at 4 to 15 millimeters and mostly dark gray to reddish brown or rarely greenish. The bark properties change with age; young trees are somewhat wrinkled, while older trees have a smooth bark, with the exception of a few spots where longitudinal cracks form. In old trees, these cracks get deeper and parts of the bark can peel off. The inner bark is reddish and fibrous.
The seedlings germinate hypogeaically and the epicotyl is 8 to 22 centimeters long. The primary leaves are arranged alternately with four to six leaflets.
leaf
The alternate leaves are arranged in a petiole and a leaf blade. The paper-like leaf blade is either simple, paired or unpaired pinnate and completely glabrous. The usually six to nine (three to eleven) leaflets per leaflet are arranged alternately. The lowest leaflet is formed 5 to 25 millimeters away from the base and the leaflets located higher up are slightly larger than the lower ones. The entire, 2 to 13 centimeters long and 1.5 to 5 centimeters wide leaflets are ovate-elliptical to oblong or elongated-lanceolate and slightly asymmetrical. Although they are occasionally long, they always have a blunt point. Each leaflet has around the 20 irregular lateral nerves on each side of the midrib and countless translucent, glandular points can be seen scattered over the entire leaf blade. The leaf stalk, which is swollen at the stem axis, is 1 to 2 or 3 centimeters long and the leaf spindle is 4.5 to 7 or 8 centimeters long. They are both slim and fluted flat on top. The petiole is bare, 2 to 4 millimeters long and often slightly twisted. The midrib is conspicuous on both sides of the leaf blade, but a shallow indentation towards the base of the leaflet can be seen on the surface. The stipules are small and fall off very early.
Inflorescence and flower
The inflorescences are finely hairy and develop at the end of the branches. They are 5 to 8 cm long ears arranged in 5 to 15 cm long panicles or 12 cm long axillary clusters . The early falling bracts are 1 to 1.5 mm long and 0.5 to 1 millimeter wide. The flower stalks are about 1 millimeter long. The 0.5 millimeter long bracts are only found on newly opened flowers.
The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic and four- or five-fold. The four or five, whitish sepals are egg-shaped, translucent, speckled, slightly hairy and ciliate with a length of 1.5 to 2 millimeters. There are no petals . The eight to ten identically shaped stamens consist of 3 to 3.5 millimeters long and hairy stamens in the lower part and 0.5 millimeter long anthers. The only carpel is stalked 0.5 to 1 millimeter long, with a length of 1.5 millimeters semicircular to elliptical, shaggy hairy and contains a single hanging ovule . The stylus are 2 millimeters long.
Fruit and seeds
The fruit stalk is glabrous and relatively short. The legumes , 7 to 17 centimeters long and 2 to 4.5 centimeters wide , are wingnut- like, but with an enclosed seed at the top of the fruit. The fruit is spread by the wind and is at its widest point, in the upper half of the wing, 3 to 5 centimeters wide. The wing is elongated to ovate-lanceolate with an almost straight wing edge on one side and a much more rounded edge and a less pronounced thickening on the other. The wings are immature green and when mature yellowish brown with a remarkably loose network structure of the nerves. The 10 to 15 millimeter long fruit stalk separates the wing from the remains of the calyx. The seed is approximately oval to elliptical, flattened and grooved flat with a length of 2 to 3 centimeters and a circumference of 1.5 to 2 centimeters. The integuments are thin and paper-like and the remnants are preserved on the pericarp .
Phenology
In Nigeria and Cameroon, the trees bloom mainly between January and March; in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the flowering period and fruiting have been observed all year round. In Nigeria, the flowering period was also observed in the dry season , with fruiting 3 to 4 months later.
Occurrence
The distribution area of Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum is mainly in the Guineo - Congolese region in West and Central Africa. The trees grow eastwards from southern Nigeria to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the south to Cabinda in the states of Angola , Equatorial Guinea , Gabon , Cameroon , Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum is found mainly in semi-evergreen forests at altitudes up to 600 meters, but can also be found in evergreen forests. It usually grows singly and it is only rarely found in small groups. The tree seems to have a preference for subsoil containing sedimentary rocks . The species grows particularly preferably in deep, sandy, iron-rich and well- drained soils . In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, high concentrations of the tree were found on sandy soils lying above rock. In Nigeria, by far the largest number of specimens grow on Ferralsol .
Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum grows in areas with mean minimum monthly temperatures of 14 to 18 degrees and mean maximum monthly temperatures of 28 to 32 degrees. The dry season is around 100 days, sometimes 150 to 160 days. The mean annual rainfall is between 1400 and 2600 mm.
Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum is through strong exploitation and habitat loss on the Red List of endangered species of the IUCN classified as "critically endangered" since 1998 as "Endangered" =, but data on the current state no. However, natural regeneration can be plentiful, with 7,800 seedlings and young trees per hectare recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . Even so, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization recommends that genetic material should be collected for future replanting.
Taxonomy
It was first described in 1923 by Camille Vermoesen under the name ( Basionym ) Pterygopodium balsamiferum in Man. Essences. Forest. Congo Belg. , P. 233. Hermann August Theodor Harms put the genus Gossweilerodendron with the type species Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum in the note sheet of the Botanical Garden and Museum in Berlin-Dahlem , Volume 9, p. 457. Another synonym for Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum (Vermoesen) Harms is Prioria balsamiferum (Vermoesen) Breteler. The specific epithet balsamiferum refers to the balms that the trees contain.
Use and cultivation
The light and strong construction timber is robust and easy to work with. It has a strong gum secretion. Mostly it is used to make plywood , but it is also used for furniture, flooring, household items, interior cladding, boxes, barrels, shingles, veneers, hardboard, toys and in shipbuilding. It is just as suitable for vehicle bodies as it is for carving and turning work. It is also used in lightweight construction and in some cases is also traded as a mahogany substitute. The trunk is traditionally used to make canoes. The copal resin from the sapwood is used as a light source and to seal canoes. The tree also serves as a source of oleoresins (balms).
The wood is in Nigeria Agba , Achi , Egba , Emongi or Losin-Erin , in the Republic of Congo Tola blanc , in Angola Tola blanca , Gabon Emolo , Cameroon Sinedon and the Democratic Republic of Congo N'Tola called. According to DIN EN 13556 , in which the nomenclature of the commercial timbers used in Europe is specified, the German standard name is the same as for Gossweilerodendron joveri Tola with the abbreviation GOXX .
The heartwood has a light, yellowish-brown color and a dark to light, reddish-brown color after debarking. It is only slightly differentiated from the slightly lighter sapwood , which is up to 10 centimeters wide . It has a distinctive odor and a bulk density of 450 to 550 kg / m³.
In 1999 it was ranked seventh among the most exported woods in Gabon; In 2001, 56,000 m³ of wood were exported, in 2005 it was only 13,800 m³. Exports also fell sharply in the other countries. Small amounts of wood exported from Cameroon in 2006 were then priced at $ 867 per cubic meter. Freshly cut tree trunks are sometimes of core beetles infest, but usually do not have to be chemically treated.
Little is known about the cultivation of Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum . The seeds can lose their ability to germinate after 2 weeks. The tree is shade tolerant and grows relatively slowly for the first 10 years. It was planted in rows on an experimental scale and in 22 years these trees reached heights of 18 meters and chest height diameters of 60 to 120 centimeters.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Food & Agriculture Org .: Databook on Endangered Tree and Shrub Species and Provenances . 1986, p. 524 ( full text in Google Book Search). Also available on FAO as PDF.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l RHMJ Lemmens, D. Louppe, AA Oteng-Amoako: Timbers 2 . PROTA = Plant Resources of Tropical Africa, 2012, p. 804 ( Prioria balsamifera on p. 542 in the Google book search).
- ↑ a b Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum in the Red List of Endangered Species of the IUCN 2014.3. Listed by: African Regional Workshop (Conservation & Sustainable Management of Trees, Zimbabwe, July 1996), 1998. Accessed May 4, 2015.
- ↑ a b Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
- ↑ Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed on April 29, 2015.
- ↑ Manfred Kuder: Angola: a geographical, social and economic country studies, volume 6 . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1971, ISBN 3-534-04798-2 ( limited preview in Google book search).
- ↑ Data sheet at Legumes of the World from Royal Botanical Gardens Kew with outdated data from 2005. ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Last accessed on April 29, 2015
- ↑ Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum on USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory . (English)
- ↑ Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum on ForestMaine (PDF). (English)
- ↑ Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum for commercial timbers from DELTA . (English)
