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Kayu puteh
Melaleuca leucadendra (L.) L.
MYRTACEAE
Kayu puteh; Gelam; Niaouli (New Caledonia); Brown tea-tree (Australia); Paper bark (Australia); Cajeput (United States of America); Smach chanlus (Cambodia); Tea tree (Papua New Guinea); Tram (Vietnam); Kayu putih (Indonesia); Broad leaved tea tree (Papua New Guinea)
Myrtus leucodendra L.; Melaleuca viridiflora Gaertner
It is an evergreen, small to medium-sized tree up to 15 m tall and 20 to 30 cm in diameter. It is reported as an essential oil plant.
It grows in pure stands on wet coastal flats and brackish swamps.
It is native to eastern Australia, Malay Archipelago, New Caledonia, and New Guinea.
This tree has been widely planted in other tropical and subtropical areas, often becoming naturalized.
The wood contains cajeput oil which can be extracted by steam distillation.
Wood diffuse porous. Tangential diameter of vessel lumina 100 micras or less (very small). Vessels per mm2 5 to 20. Vessels per mm2 less than 6 (rare). Simple perforation plates. Vessel-ray pits similar to intervessel pits in size and shape. Intervessel pits sm Paratracheal axial parenchyma scanty and/or vasicentric. Axial parenchyma aliform. Axial parenchyma confluent. Occasionally 5 to 8 cells per parenchyma strand. Occasionally axial parenchyma in narrow bands on lines up to 3 cells wide. Occasionally axial parenc 4 to 10 rays per mm (medium). Occasionally larger rays more than 4 seriate. Occasionally silica bodies in the ray cells. Homogeneous rays and/or sub-homogeneous rays (all ray cells procumbent). Fibers very thin walled. Fibers with simple to minutely bordered pits.
Unrestricted
The sapwood is yellowish, merging gradually into pinkish-gray heartwood.
The grain is interlocked, occasionally crossed.
The texture is typically fine to medium.
It is durable in contact with the ground and in water.
1
Silica Content: Silica content varies from 0.2-0.95%. Silica Value: 0.55
0.65
0.72
8.4
4.8
Ease of Drying: Boards dry rapidly without much degrade. Drying Defects: The wood is sometimes prone to collapse, checking, cupping and warping.
1.8
834
415
Melaleuca is a hard timber but it saws well.
It tends to dull the saw-teeth.
Machining operations are fair to difficult due to interlocked grain.
This wood is reported to glue well.
It takes a fairly good finish.
EXTERIOR GENERAL, bridges, poles, paling, rails, crossarms, crossties, HOUSING GENERAL, FURNITURE AND CABINETS, TOOLS, agricultural tools, PACKING, CONTAINERS, truck bodies, truck flooring, NAVAL CONSTRUCTION, boats, port pillar, port storage
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