Breonia perrieri (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Fruit
Timber
Food security

distribution in Africa (wild)

Breonia perrieri Homelle

Protologue: Bull. Soc. Bot. France 84: 461 (1938).

Family: Rubiaceae

Origin and geographic distribution

Breonia perrieri is endemic to Madagascar, where it is distributed in the western parts of the island.

Uses

The wood of Breonia perrieri is locally used for construction, carpentry and furniture, and for making boats, bridges and handicrafts. It is also suitable for flooring, carvings, turnery, wheels and railway sleepers. The pulp of the infructescence is edible.

Properties

The heartwood is pale yellow to brownish beige or pinkish beige, and not clearly differentiated from the yellowish brown sapwood. The wood is heavy, with a density of 800–940 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content, and moderately hard to hard. Drying is quite difficult and should be done slowly and carefully. The rates of shrinkage are moderately high to high, from green to oven dry 3.7–6.0% radial and 6.0–12.6% tangential. The wood is not stable in service, making it unsuitable for flooring. At 12% moisture content, the modulus of rupture is 137–198 N/mm², modulus of elasticity 8630–12,950 N/mm², compression parallel to grain 60–77 N/mm², cleavage 23.5 N/mm and Chalais-Meudon side hardness 5.1–8.1. The wood saws, planes, finishes and paints well, but nailing is difficult; pre-boring is necessary. It is moderately resistant to resistant to attacks by termites and fairly resistant to attacks by fungi. The heartwood is resistant to impregnation with preservatives, but the sapwood impregnates well.

Description

• Deciduous, small tree up to 15(–25) m tall; bole straight and cylindrical, up to 70 cm in diameter, grooved at the base, sometimes buttressed; bark surface longitudinally fissured, grey.
• Leaves decussately opposite, simple and entire; stipules boat-shaped, 8–14 mm long, caducous; petiole 3.5–6 cm long, terete, glabrous or hairy towards apex; blade broadly obovate to rounded, 9–15 cm × 6–13 cm, base cordate, apex rounded to acuminate, leathery, short-hairy or glabrous, pinnately veined with c. 9 pairs of lateral veins, but with a few basal veins.
• Inflorescence a solitary, axillary, globose head 2.5–3 cm in diameter; peduncle 2.5–3.5 cm long, with node near apex.
• Flowers bisexual, regular, (4–)5-merous, sessile; calyx tube c. 2.5 mm long, glabrous outside, lobes oblong, c. 1 mm long, short-hairy; corolla glabrous, yellow-tinged, tube 4–5 mm long, lobes oblong, c. 1.5 mm long; stamens inserted at the throat of the corolla tube, anthers c. 1 mm long, filaments c. 1 mm long; ovary inferior, 2-celled, style c. 10 mm long.
• Fruit a berry, many together fused in an infructescence c. 2 cm in diameter, up to 4-seeded.
• Seeds ellipsoid, strongly flattened, with rudimentary wings at base, reticulate, white-tinged.

Other botanical information

Breonia perrieri flowers in November–January and bears fruits in January–March. The tree loses its leaves in the dry season and new leaves appear after the start of the rainy season.

Breonia comprises about 20 species and is endemic to Madagascar. Species limits have changed over the years, which has led to much confusion and erroneous attribution of uses to species. Breonia madagascariensis A.Rich. (synonym: Sarcocephalus madagascariensis (A.Rich.) Baill.), for instance, has sometimes been mentioned to be used as a source of timber, but this species has only been collected a few times.

Breonia decaryana

The wood of Breonia decaryana Homolle (synonyms: Breonia keliravina Homolle, Neobreonia decaryana (Homolle) Ridsdale), a medium-sized tree up to 30 m tall distributed in eastern Madagascar, is used for the same purposes as that of Breonia perrieri. It is heavy, with a density of 830–1090 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content.

Breonia boivinii

Breonia boivinii Havil. is a shrub or small tree up to 15 m tall, distributed in northern Madagascar. The hard wood is used in construction, and the bark is used as a laxative.

Breonia chinensis

Breonia chinensis (Lam.) Capuron is a shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 25 m tall, distributed from northern to south-eastern Madagascar. Its wood is used for construction, planks and dugout canoes, and as fuelwood. The bark is used in the fermentation of the local alcoholic beverage ‘betsabetsa’. The infructescence is edible. In traditional medicine, a decoction of the leaves or bark is used for the treatment of diarrhoea.

Breonia cuspidata

Breonia cuspidata (Baker) Havil. (synonym: Nauclea cuspidata Baker) is a rare tree occurring in north-western Madagascar. Its wood has been used for joinery and carpentry.

Breonia fragifera, macrocarpa, stipulata

The wood of Breonia fragifera Capuron ex Razafim., a shrub or small tree up to 15(–25) m tall distributed in northern and eastern Madagascar, Breonia macrocarpa Homolle, a small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall distributed in north-eastern Madagascar, and Breonia stipulata Havil., a shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 25 m tall distributed in northern and western Madagascar, is used in construction.

Ecology

Breonia perrieri occurs in dry deciduous forest.

Management

The 1000-seed weight is about 2 g. At a temperature of 25°C and 8 hours light per day, the germination rate was 94%.

Genetic resources

It is unclear whether Breonia perrieri is threatened with genetic erosion, but it has a fairly wide distribution in Madagascar.

Prospects

The wood of Breonia perrieri and other Breonia species is hard and durable and easy to work, but its instability in service limits its range of potential uses. Because of the lack of information on the availability of its timber, the prospects of Breonia perrieri are difficult to assess.

Major references

• Guéneau, P., Bedel, J. & Thiel, J., 1970–1975. Bois et essences malgaches. Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, Nogent-sur-Marne, France. 150 pp.

• Madagascar Catalogue, 2011. Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Madagascar. [Internet] Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, U.S.A. and Missouri Botanical Garden, Madagascar Research and Conservation Program, Antananarivo, Madagascar. http://www.efloras.org/ madagascar. December 2011.

• Missouri Botanical Garden, undated. VAST (VAScular Tropicos) nomenclatural database. [Internet] http://www.tropicos.org/. January 2012.

• Razafimandimbison, S.G., 2002. A systematic revision of Breonia (Rubiaceae-Naucleeae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 89(1): 1–37.

• Sallenave, P., 1971. Propriétés physiques et mécaniques des bois tropicaux. Deuxième supplément. Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, Nogent-sur-Marne, France. 128 pp.

Other references

• Andriamilison, L.N., 1993. Essai de détermination des dimensions d’exploitabilité à partir de la répartition du nombre de tiges et de certaines caractéristiques technologiques du bois pour quelques essences principales de la forêt dense sèche de la région du Menabe. Mémoire de fin d’étude en vue d’obtention du diplôme d’Ingéniorat, Département des Eaux et Forêts, Ecole Supérieure en Sciences Agronomiques (ESSA), Université d’Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar. 99 pp.

• Boiteau, P., Boiteau, M. & Allorge-Boiteau, L., 1999. Dictionnaire des noms malgaches de végétaux. 4 Volumes + Index des noms scientifiques avec leurs équivalents malgaches. Editions Alzieu, Grenoble, France.

• Cailliez, F. & Guéneau, P., 1972. Analyse en composantes principales des propriétés technologiques des bois Malgaches. Annales des Sciences Forestières 30: 215–266.

• Grenfell, S., 1999. Complexe Manongarivo / Tsaratanana. Plan de gestion. Rapport de l'Association National pour la Gestion des Aires Protégées (ANGAP). pp. 39–42.

• Parant, B., Chichignoud, M. & Rakotovao, G., 1985. Présentation graphique des caractères technologiques des principaux bois tropicaux. Tome 5. Bois de Madagascar. CIRAD, Montpellier, France et Département des Recherches forestières et piscicoles du FOFIFA, Antananarivo, Madagascar. 161 pp.

• Rafidison, V.M., 1999. Valorisation des plantes les plus exploitées dans la zone périphérique de la réserve naturelle intégrale d’Andohahela (Cas des villages de Ebaketra et Ihazofotsy-Bevia). Mémoire de DEA, Département Ecologie Végétale, faculté des Sciences, Université d’Antananarivo, Madagascar. 86 pp.

• Rohner, U. & Sorg, J.-P., 1986. Observations phénologiques en forêt dense sèche. Tome 1. Fiche technique No 12. Centre de Formation Professionnelle Forestière ‘Fofampiala’, Morondava, Madagascar. 129 pp.

• Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, 2008. Seed Information Database (SID). Version 7.1. [Internet] http://data.kew.org/ sid/. January 2012.

• Takahashi, A., 1978. Compilation of data on the mechanical properties of foreign woods (part 3) Africa. Shimane University, Matsue, Japan. 248 pp.

• Verdcourt, B., Leroy, J.F. & Tirvengadum, D.D., 1989. Rubiacées. In: Bosser, J., Cadet, T., Guého, J. & Marais, W. (Editors). Flore des Mascareignes. Familles 107–108bis. The Sugar Industry Research Institute, Mauritius, l’Office de la Recherche Scientifique Outre-Mer, Paris, France & Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 135 pp.

Author(s)

• M. Brink, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Brink, M., 2012. Breonia perrieri Homolle. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Louppe, D. & Oteng-Amoako, A.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. <http://www.prota4u.org/search.asp>.

Accessed 18 December 2024.

• See the Prota4U database.