Mora excelsa
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Mora excelsa |
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Mora excelsa is a tree in the legume family in the carob subfamily. It occurs in the Guyanas to Venezuela and in Trinidad . The tree is often found in swampy, damp locations up to the mangrove edges.
description
As a mostly evergreen tree, Mora excelsa grows normally around 30–40 meters high, but it should be able to reach heights of 50–60 meters. The trunk diameter reaches about 70-120 (up to over 200) centimeters. Sometimes it forms buttress roots that are meters high and wide . The gray-brown bark is smooth and slightly finely scaly.
The alternate, stalked leaves are usually pinnate in pairs. The 6–8 leathery, entire, short-stalked, bald leaflets are ovate, lanceolate to elliptical, lanceolate or obovate. At the top they are rounded to indented or rounded to pointed, pointed or pointed (young plants, sterile twigs). The leaflets are about 10-25 centimeters long.
It forms many-flowered, cylindrical and long, hairy, terminal ears . The seated, white and small flowers with a double flower cover are five-fold. The calyx is cup-shaped with ciliate lobes. The obovate petals are finely ciliated. There are 5 stamens and alternating 5 club-shaped staminodes. The anthers are hairy sloping, bearded. The pedunculated, and bare elongate ovary is constantly above, with a conical stylus with a smaller capitate scar .
There are leathery-woody, about 12-21 centimeters long and 5-7 centimeters wide, flattened, 4-5 centimeters thick, brown and glabrous, egg-shaped to elliptical legumes . They contain one or two very large, kidney-shaped, up to 10-12 centimeters long and 4-7 centimeters wide, flattened, smooth and red-brown, soft, buoyant seeds with a thin seed coat . They are among the largest seeds of the dicotyledons. Those of Mora oleifera are even larger.
use
The very heavy, durable and hard, quite fire-resistant wood , ironwood , also known as NATO or Mora , is used for various applications.
The bark is used medicinally.
literature
- Transactions of the Linnean Society. Vol. XVIII, 1841, p. 210 f, Tab. XVI, XVII, limited preview in the Google book search.
- J. Lanjouw, AL Stoffers: Flora of Suriname. Vol. II, Part II, Brill, 1976, ISBN 90-04-04581-3 , p. 12 ff.
- DA Lachman-White, CD Adams, UO Defiance: A Guide to the Medicinal Plants of Coastal Guyana. Tech. Pub. Series 225, Commonwealth Science Council, 1992, ISBN 0-85092-387-5 (Reprint), p. 190.
- M. Chudnoff: Tropical Timbers of the World. Agriculture Handbook 607, USDA, 1984, p. 111 f, limited preview in the Google book search.
- Ingrid Roth: Stratification of a tropical forest as seen in dispersal types. Junk Pub., 1987, ISBN 978-94-010-8639-4 , pp. 37 f, 95.
- Franklin R. Longwood: Commercial Timbers of the Caribbean. Agriculture Handbook 207, USDA, 1962, p. 86 ff, limited preview in the Google book search.
- AM Polak, HR Rypkema: Major Timer Trees of Guyana A Field Guide. Tropenbos, 1992, ISBN 90-5113-013-9 , online (PDF; 8.5 MB).
Web links
- Mora excelsa at Useful Tropical Plants.