Limba (tree)
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Limba ( Terminalia superba ) |
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| Engl. & Diels |
The Limbabaum ( Terminalia superba ), and White myrobolan called, is a plant of the genus of Myrobalan ( Terminalia ). He is also known as Korina in the United States . The tree is found in the tropical rainforest of Africa.
description
The limba tree is a showy, deciduous tree with a long, straight trunk that can reach heights of 30 to 45 m and a trunk circumference between 4 and 5 m. The strong buttress roots reach 2.5 to 3 m above the ground. The branches, standing in whorls , spread out into an open crown . The wood is light yellow-brown, sapwood and heartwood are usually indistinguishable, but there are shapes that develop black stripes and shapes whose heartwood is walnut-like.
The simple leaves that alternate in small groups at the ends of the branches leave clear scars on the branches when they fall off. The leaf stalks are 3 to 7 cm long. The smooth leaf blade is obovate, 6 to 12 cm long and 2.5 to 7 cm wide, with a short tip. There are six to eight pairs of leaf veins.
The first flowers are only formed when the trees are relatively old (there have been observations of 15 and 23 year old specimens, for example). The loose, ear-like inflorescence is about 7 to 18 cm long. The inflorescence axis is hairy. The sessile, small flowers are five-fold. The five greenish-white sepals are fused into a saucer-shaped calyx with five short, triangular calyx lobes. Petals are missing. There are usually two circles with five stamens each. The stamens are about longer than the calyx. The pollination is done by many different types of insects.
It takes between six and nine months from pollination to fruit ripening. The small, single-seeded, winged, sessile, golden-brown, smooth nut fruit is 1.5 to 2.5 cm long and 4 to 7 cm wide including the wings when ripe, without the wings about 1.5 cm long and 2 cm wide .
Occurrence and locations
This species occurs from Guinea to western Cameroon and from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Angola . In many West African countries, the trees are intensively planted. The natural habitat of the trees are high forests and savannahs, in locations with permeable soil and more than 1500 mm of annual rainfall .
use
The wood of the tree is used as timber. It has a light, medium density, is comparatively soft, and can be sawed, processed and polished well. Its normal gross density is 428 kg / m³, the thermal conductivity is 0.099 W / (m · K). Since it is susceptible to decay and infestation by termites and beetles of the genus Euplatypus , it is not suitable for outdoor use. Indoors, it is used for doors, door posts, office furnishings, clapboards, furniture, picture frames, musical instruments, table tennis bats, matches, boxes, planks, veneer and as plywood. Immediately after felling, the wood must be processed; protective treatment is necessary after sawing.
literature
- Quentin Meunier, Carl Moumbogou, Jean-Louis Doucet: Les arbres utiles du Gabon. Presses Agronomiques de Gembloux, 2015, ISBN 978-2-87016-134-0 , p. 124 f, limited preview in the Google book search.
- M. Chudnoff: Tropical Timbers of the World. Agriculture Handbook 607, USDA, 1984, p. 280, limited preview in Google book search.
- HM Burkill: The useful plants of west tropical Africa. Volume 4, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1985. ( online ).
- Terminalia superba at PROTA.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Niemz: Investigations into the thermal conductivity of selected native and foreign wood species . In: Building Physics 29 . tape 29 , no. 4 . Ernst & Sohn Verlag for Architecture and Technical Sciences GmbH & Co.KG, Berlin 2007, p. 311-312 , doi : 10.1002 / bapi.200710040 .