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Nomenclature etc. ARALIACEAE. D. arboreus (L.) Decne. & Planch. (syn.: Gilibertia arborea (L.) Marchal); D. cuneatus (A.DC.) Decne. & Planch. (syn.: Gilibertia cuneata (A.DC.) Marchal). Trade and local names: D. cuneatus: guiné, maria-mole, mandioca, pau-de-tamanco, embirutó (BR); amba'y ra, ombú-ra (PY, AR). D. arboreus: branco (CO); cuajada (HO); ramón de vaca, víbona, palo santo (CU); cacho, garumo macho, zopilote (CR); chonte (GT); cajeta, carne de pescado, chagane, cuxharo, zapotillo (MX); pama, quesito (VE); vaquero (PA); Angelica tree, potato-wood, white gumbolimbo (US). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Tree. Geographic distribution: Mexico and Central America, Caribbean, tropical South America, southern Brazil (asian species not considered in the description).
General. Heartwood basically white or grey. Sapwood colour similar to heartwood colour. Density 0.45–0.55 g/cm³.
Vessels. Wood diffuse porous. Vessels in multiples, commonly in short (2–3 vessels) radial rows and in clusters. Vessel outline angular. Perforation plates scalariform and reticulate, foraminate or other types, with (1–)3–10(–15) bars. Intervessel pits scalariform, opposite, and alternate, average diameter (vertical) 8–12 µm. Scalariform intervascular pitting usually restricted to overlapping vessel tails. Vessel-ray pits with reduced borders or apparently simple, different from intervessel pits, rounded or angular. Tyloses present, thinwalled. Other deposits present.
Tracheids and fibres. Fibres very thin-walled, or of medium wall thickness. Fibre pits mainly restricted to radial walls, simple to minutely bordered. Fibres exclusively septate; evenly distributed, or scattered near vessels and rays.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma apotracheal, or paratracheal. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse-in-aggregates. Paratracheal axial parenchyma scanty. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 3–8.
Rays. Rays multiseriate, (1–)3–5(–6) cells wide. Height of large rays commonly 500 to 1000 µm. Rays composed of two or more cell types (heterocellular). Heterocellular rays with square and upright cells restricted to marginal rows, mostly 1 marginal row of upright or square cells. Sheath cells occasionally present.
Secretory structures. Intercellular canals present, oriented radially.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals not observed. Silica not observed.
Physical and chemical tests. Heartwood not fluorescent.
Illustrations. • Macroscopic images. transverse (ca. 10x). longitudinal (natural size). • Transverse section. Dendropanax cf. cuneatus. • Tangential section. Dendropanax cf. cuneatus. • Radial section. Dendropanax arboreus. • Various structural details. Dendropanax sp. from left to right: intercellular radial canals, vessel-ray pitting, sheath cells, types of multiple perforation plates.
The interactive key allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting specified attributes, summaries of attributes within groups of taxa, and geographical distribution.
Cite this publication as: ‘Richter, H.G., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2000 onwards. Commercial timbers: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. In English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Version: 9th April 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
