Campnosperma
Content
Description
Trees, with distinct Terminalia-branching ().
Leaves spiral, simple, coriaceous, entire, petioled, usually with minute, peltate or lobed scales on both surfaces, glabrescent;
Inflorescences axillary, paniculi-form, sometimes with rather simple, scant, short branches and seemingly racemose.
Flowers unisexual and rarely bisexual (plants polygamo-dioecious).
Petals (3 or) 4 (or 5), imbricate, glabrous (except sometimes with lobed, hair-like scales on the outer surface).
Stamens twice the number of petals, epipetalous ones shorter than those alternate with them;
Ovary subglobose, 1-celled, scurfy;
Seed 1, with testa free from the endocarp;
Distribution
Africa: Seychelles (Seychelles present), Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present; Sulawesi (Sulawesi present); Sumatera (Sumatera present); Thailand (Thailand present), Ceylon present, Madagascar present, Melanesia present, Micronesia present, SE. Asia present, South America present, Southern America: Panamá (Panamá present)
About 10 spp., in South America (Brazil) and Central America (Panama), Madagascar (1 sp.) and the Seychelles (1 sp.), SE. Asia (Ceylon, Thailand), through Malesia (Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Celebes, Moluccas, New Guinea) to Micronesia and Melanesia.
Ecology
When growing in swamps C. coriaceum develops often prop-roots as well as slender-kneed pneumato-phores over 1 m high.
The fruits are eaten by birds, especially by pigeons (CORNER, 1940).
In New Guinea C. brevipetiolatum and C. coriaceum occur in a wide range of habitats between 0 and 500 m. In forest on well-drained soils and on soils inundated for very short periods, these species occur with low frequencies (less than 5 % of the trees). The frequency can be higher in forest which is inundated for longer periods and it increases gradually to 100% of the canopy layer in some types of swamp forest. .
Campnosperma-swamp forest occurs throughout the wet-tropical parts of New Guinea. In areas with a lower annual rainfall and a distinct dry season, the Campnosperma species are replaced by Melaleuca as the predominant species in swamp forest. In the Port Moresby area this replacement is distinct, whereas in the Fly River area the geographical segregation is less distinct probably due to the more gradual climatic transitions (but here C. montanum is also reported from Melaleuca-swamp!).
Where Campnosperma is predominant (80-100%) in the canopy, the lower story often consists of sago; the soil is inundated up to c. 1-1½ m for at least 5 months per year and peat formation occurs regularly; at the end of the dry season the water table is at the soil surface or only slightly below, that is, the soil is permanently waterlogged. Through a stage with an open canopy, with sago palms, and with Thoraco-stachyum, Campnosperma becomes scattered (with a few other species) in the margins of deeper, herbaceous swamps. In many reports on Campnosperma-dominated swamp forest or on pure Campnosperma stands the association with sago, pandans, Thoracostachyum (sometimes Mapania), Scleria, and Nepenthes is mentioned. Near the coast Campnosperma forest occurs only in non-tidal freshwater swamps.
According to LUNDQUIST (1941), the Campnosperma trees in the centre of pure stands attain a mean d.b.h. of only 25 cm and almost never exceed 40 cm; towards the margins of the stands the trees are somewhat heavier and diameters of 40 to 80 cm can be reached.
From the reports and vegetation maps it is not clear whether C. brevipetiolatum and C. coriaceum can occur together in pure 'Campnosperma' stands, but apparently this can happen. "Some stands consist of both species in about equal proportions" (PAIJMANS, 1976).
C. montanum has a far wider altitudinal range (0-1500 m) than the species just mentioned and accordingly occurs also in several types of submontane forest.
For Malaya, WYATT-SMITH (1959) listed C. auriculatum as one of the species not strictly belonging to the oligotrophic peat-swamp forest, but depending on the presence of eutrophic water. This agrees with the observation by ENDERT (1920) that in the Musi Delta, Sumatra, C. coriaceum is predominant in the peat-swamp, whereas C. auriculatum prefers forests inundated seasonally by rivers. Several authors list C. auriculatum with species of secondary (swamp) forest.
In Malesia Campnosperma is sometimes associated with the very similarly looking Terminalia cope-landii ELMER; in the Solomon Is. C. brevipetiolatum is often associated with Terminalia brassii EXELL. — W. VlNK.
Uses
The timber of all species is of the same grade; it is soft, light (specific gravity 0.3-0.5; reported as 0.7 by KRAEMER, 1951), yellowish pink to pinkish grey, easy to peel, sometimes containing some silica, planing somewhat fuzzy, easy to impregnate, not durable. Not suitable for construction work; suitable for packing cases, crates, planks, canoes, match-boxes (reports on match-sticks are disagreeing), splints, peeled veneers (not for faces?), drawing boards, and wooden shoes. Logs float.
The wood produces oil in small quantities (see under the species; cf. also ).
The wood produces oil in small quantities (see under the species; cf. also ).