Changes

*Kekatong

Kekatong is not an important export timber, and only very small amounts are exported. No figures are available, except for the export of round logs from Sabah in 1987, which amounted to only 200 m³with a value of US$ 16 000 (price: US$ 80/m³).

Kekatong is a heavy hardwood. The heartwood is golden-brown, deep pinkish-brown to red when freshly cut, darkening to dark red on exposure, corewood often brown-black or chocolate brown. The heartwood is not sharply demarcated from the pale pinkish-brown sapwood. Planed surfaces are generally not lustrous; the wood is attractively streaked on radial surfaces and mottled on tangential surfaces. The density is (720-)850-1065(-1155) kg/m³at 15% moisture content. The grain is straight to slightly or deeply interlocked, occasionally spiral, texture moderately fine, often uneven.

*Shrubs or small to fairly large evergreen trees of up to 40 m tall; bole sometimes of poor shape, up to 80 cm in diameter, with or without buttresses; bark surface smooth, lenticellate, grey to brown, sometimes with an exudate, sapwood not well-defined; buds small, with numerous brown scales in two rows; new leaves developing in bright pink tassels. *Leaves alternate, paripinnate, with 1-3(-6) pairs of opposite leaflets, young leaves often in white, pendulous tassels; petiole short, with stipules falling immediately after the unfolding of the bud, leaving no scar; leaflets sessile or shortly petiolate, asymmetrical, entire, leathery, often abruptly tipped, base very unequal, cuneate on the distal side, variously rounded on the basal side, usually glabrous. *Inflorescence usually a dense, sessile, axillary raceme with 1(-2) racemes per axil, exceptionally cauliflorous and then 3-5 racemes together; bracts scale-like, bracteoles caducous after anthesis. *Flowers bisexual, more or less irregular, small; receptacle short, campanulate, circumscissile under the ripening fruit; calyx with 4(-5) free, imbricate sepals reflexed at anthesis; corolla with 5, narrow, free, glabrous petals, the lateral petals covering the standard in the bud; disk absent; stamens (8-)10(-15), free, of equal length or alternately shorter and longer, sometimes 1 stamen sterile, anthers medi-dorsifix, lengthwise dehiscent, introrse, c. 1 mm long, the connective very often cleft below the insertion of the filament, mostly apiculate at the apex; ovary superior, 1-celled, with 1(-2) ovules, stipe central or excentric, rarely merged with the receptacle. *Fruit a fleshy to woody pod, 1(-2)-seeded, indehiscent, oblong, flat to globose, smooth or rugose, sometimes warty, often brown with a thickened stipe. *Seed circular, compressed, with a large embryo and little or no endosperm. *Seedling with epigeal or hypogeal germination; the cotyledons equal, being massive foodstoring organs.

*Sapwood up to 90 mm wide, pale pinkish-brown, gradual transition to darker coloured heartwood but clearly demarcated from deep pinkish grey-brown to dark brown inner heartwood. *Grain straight to slightly or deeply interlocked, occasionally spiral. *Texture medium to fine, uneven. Figure with attractive streaks on quartersawn faces, with slight lustre or not lustrous. *Growth rings not evident although zones of fibres without parenchyma and vessels may give an impression of growth rings; vessels .*Vessels medium to small, not readily discernible to the naked eye, with white or pinkish chalk-like deposits; parenchyma .*Parenchyma abundant, paratracheal, wide bands visible to the naked eye often forming attractive zig-zag patterns on backsawn surfaces; rays .*Rays fine, individual rays barely discernible to the naked eye, ripple .*Ripple marks absent.

*Growth rings inconspicuous. *Vessels diffuse, 2-5(-10)/mm², solitary and in radial multiples of 2-3(-4), clusters rare, mostly circular to oval, average tangential diameter 120-140(-220)μm; perforations simple; intervessel pits loosely alternate, rounded, 3-4(-5)μm, vestured; vessel-ray and vessel-parenchyma pits similar but half-bordered; helical thickenings absent; tyloses absent. *Fibres 1.5-2.5 mm long, non-septate, moderately thick- to thick-walled, with simple pits mainly in radial walls. *Parenchyma abundant, aliform to confluent, forming more or less continuous or wavy, regularly spaced bands, 6-7 cells wide; occasionally in marginal bands 1-2 cells wide; in 2-4, mostly 4-celled strands. *Rays 8-10/mm, narrow, (1-)2-3(-4)-seriate, c. 0.6 mm high, highest rays up to 1.5 mm, weakly heterocellular (Kribs type heterogeneous III and II). *Prismatic crystals in chambered vertical parenchyma cells and mainly in procumbent ray cells, occasionally in chambered upright cells; extraneous brownish coloured materials abundant in parenchyma and ray cells.

Species studied: ''C. cauliflora, C. inaequifolia, C. malaccensis, C. ramiflora'' .

The genus ''Cynometra'' belongs to the tribe ''Cynometreae'' together with five other closely related genera. It differs from the other genera by floral characters only. It is doubtful whether ''Cynometra'' is truly distinct from ''Maniltoa'' , because ''Maniltoa polyandra'' (Roxb.) Harms occupies an intermediate position. The delimitation of ''Cynometra'' from the other genera within the tribe is less controversial.

'''== Silviculture and management''' == Kekatong is never planted; trees are felled in natural forest, and to date there has been no replanting or enrichment planting.

* Mohd. Shukari, M., 1983. Malaysian timbers - kekatong. Malaysian Forest Service Trade Leaflet No 79. Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Kuala Lumpur. 7 pp. | '''10''' | * Whitmore, T.C., 1983. Leguminosae, Cynometra. In: Whitmore, T.C. (Editor): Tree flora of Malaya. 2nd edition. Vol. 1. Malaysian Forest Records No 26. Longman Malaysia SDN Berhad, Kuala Lumpur. pp. 253-255. == Selection of species == *[[Cynometra elmeri (PROSEA)|''Cynometra elmeri'']]*[[Cynometra inaequifolia (PROSEA)|''Cynometra inaequifolia'']]*[[Cynometra malaccensis (PROSEA)|''Cynometra malaccensis'']]*[[Cynometra mirabilis (PROSEA)|''Cynometra mirabilis'']]*[[Cynometra ramiflora (PROSEA)|''Cynometra ramiflora'']] == Authors ==