Haematoxylum campechianum
Bloodwood Tree ( Haematoxylum campechianum ), illustration
The Bloodwood Tree ( Haematoxylum campechianum ), also logwood tree or Campechebaum called (because it grows near the city of Campeche in Mexico), is a plant that belongs to the subfamily of carob plants ( Caesalpinioideae ) within the legume family ( Fabaceae ). It is native to Central America and the northern parts of South America and on Caribbean islands. It provides the logwood ( logwood, blood wood, lignum campechianum Latin, French bois de Campeche, engl. Log -wood ), the most important of all color woods. In many tropical countries, this species is an invasive plant.
- 5.1 Notes and references
Description
Appearance and leaf
The Bloodwood Tree Grows as evergreen tree or shrub and reaches stature heights of 3 to 10 feet. He often has up to 1.5 centimeters long thorns. He has a red heartwood, therefore, the genus name and the German trivial name Bloodwood tree. The wood smells something of violets. The bark is light gray. The largely bare bark of the branches has many showy, small, whitish lenticels.
The change-constant or standing together in small bundles of leaves are stalked about 1 cm long and 2.5 to 7.5 inches long. The leaf blade is feathered on one or two occasions in pairs. If they are pinnate twice then three pairs of pinnae first order exists that is particularly at the lower fan leaves like that. There are a present to five pairs of leaflets. The leaflets are at a length of typically 1 to 2.4 rarely up to 3 inches, and usually a width of 0.5 to 1.4, rarely up to 2.5 centimeters obovate with wedge-shaped and rounded Spreitenbasis deep ausgerandetem upper end. The dense Blattnervatur slants.
Inflorescence and flower
The most pendently standing on a short inflorescence stem, racemose inflorescences are two to 12 centimeters long and contain densely standing together many flowers. The thread-like flower stalk has a length of 4 to 6 mm.
The scented flowers are hermaphrodite radial symmetry and fünfzählig double perianth. The five purple - red or yellow, free sepals are oblong- lanceolate with pointed upper end at a length of 3 to 5 millimeters. The corolla has a diameter of 12 to 16 millimeters. The five yellow, free petals are narrow obovate with a length of 5 to 7 mm to oblong with blunt upper end. The ten, free, equal, stamens are about equal in length to the petals. The stamens are hairy woolly at the base. The thin style ends in a tiny scar.
Fruit and seed
The pulses are at a length of 2-6 cm and a width of 0.8 to 1.2 cm elliptical elongated with a pointed base and a rounded substantially to a blunt upper end, and containing two or three seeds. The pericarp is thin and finely veined. The light brown seeds are at a length of 3 to 3.5 or 7 or millimeters, a diameter of 2 to 3 mm and a width of 8 to 9 millimeters obliquely oblong, kidney-shaped and flattened.
Chromosome number
The chromosome number is 2n = 24
Use
End of the 19th century began to be made to cultivate it in the Dutch East Indies colonies. The liberated from the whitish sapwood blocks have large outside a dark blood red to brownish-red color, inside they are bright, reddish brown to yellowish brown, but be on the air gradually coming dark. The wood is hard and dense, is difficult to split and has a faint, distant violet -like odor and astringent taste.
One distinguishes the true logwood or Laguna Campeche, Jamaica logwood and Domingoblauholz; of the latter again several varieties, namely Monte - Christo - logwood, Fort Liberte and Aux Cayes. Martinique and Guadeloupe logwood are only low-value species.
The coloring power of conditional fuel wood is the blue hematoxylin; it is in the purest state of almost colorless crystals, but on the air soon become reddish and finally to the actual dye, skip the hematein. Because this dye is developed in the freshly grated logwood only in small quantities, it can be the same ferment in the air, giving it the desired color only; the chips the better qualities then show a peculiar yellowish-green metallic luster.
An important article of commerce is also prepared from the logwood logwood extract, you have it partly solid, partly liquid, the solid came from New York in boxes of 50 to 100 kg. The most popular brands were: Sanford, aroma Mills, Boston and Gravesend mills. Found the use of logwood in dyeing and ink manufacturing, sometimes also used in medicine and as a timber in fine carpentry.
Taxonomy
The first publication of Haematoxylum campechianum was in 1753 by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum, 1, p 384 A synonym of L. Haematoxylum campechianum is Cymbosepalum baronii Baker.
Pictures
The bark of the thorned branches has conspicuous whitish lenticels.
Inflorescence and leaves.
Swell
- SI Ali: Caesalpiniaceae in the Flora of Pakistan, Volume 54: Haematoxylum campechianum - Online. ( Description section )
- JHRoss: Haematoxylum campechianum in the Flora of Australia Online. ( Description section )
- Stephan Imhof: crops sheet - Haematoxylum campechianum. ( Description section )
- David Lorence: Datasheet: Haematoxylum campechianum in the flora of Hawaii. ( Description section )