Neobalanocarpus
| Neobalanocarpus | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Malvales |
| Family: | Dipterocarpaceae |
| Genus: | Neobalanocarpus |
| Species: | N. heimii |
| Binomial name | |
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Neobalanocarpus heimii (King) P. Ashton |
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Neobalanocarpus is a monotypic genus of plants in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The single species, Neobalanocarpus heimii, is a tropical hardwood tree. Common names for the tree and its wood products include chengal, chan ta khien, chi-ngamat, takian chan, and takian chantamaeo. The tree grows over 60 m (197 ft) tall. Chengal is considered the number one wood (classified as heavy hardwood) of Malaysia and export of logs is prohibited due to its scarcity.
Neobalanocarpus heimii is endemic to the Malay Peninsula and grows under quite a range of conditions of soils and topography in Peninsular Malaysia (and southern Thailand) from low flat sem-swamp to hills, but appears to thrive best on undulating land with light sandy soils. See Wildlife of Malaysia.
Sapwood is well defined. When freshly sawn, the heartwood is light yellow-brown with a distinct greenish tinge, darkening on exposure to dark purple-brown or rust red.
Grain is interlocked.
Texture is fine and even.
Vessels are with simple perforations and medium-sized, mostly solitary but with a few arranged radially in radial pairs and multiples of 2 to 4, evenly distributed without any clear arrangement and filled with tyloses.
Wood parenchyma is abundant, consisting of both apotracheal and paratracheal types. Apotracheal type consists of irregularly spaced bands of variable thickness and short closely spaced tangential lines extending from ray to ray. Paratracheal parenchyma is sparse, as incomplete narrow borders, not clearly visible with hand lens.
Rays are moderately fine to medium-sized, visible to the naked eye on the cross-section.
Ripple marks characteristic and very distinct.
Intercellular canals are vertical and typically smaller than the vessels, in concentric formations.
The timber seasons slowly with moderate end-checking and surface-checking as the main sources of degrade. 13 mm thick boards take approximately 5 months to air dry, while 38 mm thick boards take 6 months.
65 – 95 kg/m3absorption of preservative in open-tank treatment using a mixture of 50% creosote and 50% diesel oil heated to a temperature of 87 °C in 2 1/2 hours and maintained at this temperature for 1 hour before cooling to room temperature over a period of 16 hours. This ranks Chengal as "moderately difficult" to treat (3rd most difficult in treatability group ranking from extremely easy to very difficult).
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Wikipedia