WONDERFUL WIDE RANGING INDOMALAYAN TREES WITH DISTINCT GROWTH RINGS
By Nestor Baguinon
December 28, 2009
Collaborators of the APN Project, "Collaborative Studies in Tropical Asian Dendrochronology: Addressing Challenges in Climatology and Forest Ecology" climbed mountains and penetrated lush jungles to find their quarry. They did this in their respective countries. It is astonishing to discover a tree with distinct tree rings in the forests of Sri Lanka is also found in the Philippines and vise versa.
Let us look at some of these astounding trees for their ability to take so large an area in the Indomalayan region despite of the present ocean barriers that now lay between continental Asia and their archipelagic counterparts. From the reconnaissance of Team PHILIPPINES these trees are:
(1) Calophyllum inophyllum L. Guttiferae
(2) Cratoxylon formosum (Jack) Dyer Guttiferae
(3) Bauhinia malabarica Roxb. Caesalpiniaceae
(4) Pterocarpus indicus Willd. Fabaceae
(5) Lagerstroemia speciosa (L.) Pers. Lythraceae
(6) Melia azedarach L. Meliaceae
(7) Toona sureni (Blume) Merr. Meliaceae
(8) Albizia procera (Roxb.) Benth. Mimosaceae
(9) Pinus kesiya Royle ex Gordon Pinaceae
(10) Pinus merkusii Jungh. et de Vriese Pinaceae
(11) Dacrycarpus imbricatus (Bl.) de Laub. var patulus Podocarpaceae
(12) Nageia wallichiana (Presl.) O. Kuntze Podocarpaceae
(13) Commersonia bartramia (L.) Merr. Sterculiaceae
(14) Kleinhovia hospita L. Sterculiaceae
(15) Sterculia foetida L. Sterculiaceae
Team MALAYSIA collected:
(16) Vitex pinnata L. Verbenaceae
Team THAILAND collected:
(17) Oroxylon indicum Vent. Bignoniaceae
(18) Diospyros montana Roxb. Ebenaceae
(19) Hymenodictyon excelsum (Roxb.) Wall. Rubiaceae
(20) Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack. Rutaceae
Team INDIA collected:
(21) Toona ciliata M. Roem. Meliaceae
Team SRI LANKA collected:
(22) Mallotus philippensis Euphorbiaceae
(23) Gomphia serrata (Gaertn.) Kanis Ochnaceae.
Trees such as the pines are already proven to crossdate and therefore are now included among the tropical Asian trees that are dendrochronologically useful. If the others will also crossdate, then they too will be as useful.
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