Vernicia cordata (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Vernicia cordata (Thunb.) Airy Shaw

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonyms

• Aleurites cordata (Thunb.) R. Br. ex Steud.,
• Dryandra cordata Thunb.,
• Elaeococca verrucosa A. Juss.

Vernacular names

• Japanese wood oil, Japanese tung oil (En).
• Indo-China: hwa tung.

Distribution

Wild and cultivated in Japan, occasionally cultivated outside Japan.

Uses

The seed yields a valuable oil that is used as a drying oil but also as fuel and lubricant. Like tung oil (V. fordii (Hemsl.) Airy Shaw), the oil is almost destruction proof. After heating to about 300°C it changes into a jelly-like substance and is insoluble in all ordinary solvents and cannot be melted by further heating. The quality is slightly less than that of tung oil.

Observations

• Monoecious, evergreen tree, 7-10 m tall with white to brownish indumentum.
• Leaves alternate, petiole up to 28 cm long with slenderly stalked, slightly divergent glands at apex that are often inrolled, blade not or shallowly 3-5-lobed, 10-26 cm × 8-26 cm, ratio length/width 1:1.3.
• Inflorescence a corymbiform thyrse, unisexual, flowers white, petals obovate-spatulate, 15-20 mm × 5-10 mm with a 5 mm long claw; male inflorescence up to 23 cm long, flowers 1.5-2 cm in diameter on pedicel 4-7 mm long, stamens 8-10; female inflorescence up to 13 cm long, flowers on shorter pedicel, ovary 3-4-locular, abruptly narrowing into the styles, styles bifid up to half their length.
• Fruit globose, 3-angled or lobed, about 4 cm in diameter.
• Seed subglobose, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, smooth.

Because of the good quality oil from the seeds, V. cordata might be interesting for South-East Asia and deserves more research attention regarding cultivation requirements and commercialization possibilities.

Selected sources

55, 57, 120.