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Teak

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 11 months ago

Philippine Teak

Description and Rationale
Biology
Potential Solutions
Bibliography

Description and Rationale

Rationale

The Philippines is a country that is rich in tropical forests and a large variety of plants. Unfortunately, like many other countries, the income obtainable from logging these forests (and need for agricultural land) has led the Philippines to allowing lumber companies to come in and cut down the forests. Many plant species have become endangered because of this.

One plant that has become endangered due to deforestation is the Philippine Teak, Tectona philippinensis. This is a small tree found in Batangas province, Luzon Island and Illing Island, Mindoro, Philippines in degraded forests surrounded by agricultural land.

The wood from the trees is commonly used by the local people as firewood and used to build houses. The wood used for building is supposedly best from the young Philippines teak so the immature trees have a little chance to reproduce.

If the trees were allowed to fully mature into adult trees the wood from them can be sold at a high price and can be a valuable asset to people who grow them. It produces a hardwood timber that can be sold locally and internationally for construction purposes and in making furniture. The genus tectona is one of very few tropical trees that can be grown as a plantation crop so to increase the number of these trees would not be very difficult.

The teak seedlings grow very fast for hardwood trees. Under good conditions they can grow up to 1 inch per day. The full grown mature trees that sell best are the ones that grow straight and have few branches. To achieve this, the small trees have to be pruned to get rid of the lower branches and not the top third of the branches. For the first 3 or so years the young trees need more attentions due to the need of pruning and their rapid growth. The trees reach about 25-40 meters tall.

A project that aims at mass producing the trees would be ideal for the Philippines. Farmers in area that have the best conditions for growing teak could take on a long term plan to grow teak and later sell it for money that will benefit them.

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Biology

Common Names and Synonyms

Tectona philippinensis is also called Philippine teak. In English it is shortened to just Teak (which can be used for the other species of the genus Tectona). In the Filipino language Tagalog it is known as Tekla. Other synonyms include Kyun (Burma), Teck (French), Teca (Spanish) and Jati (Malayalam, India).

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae (Plant)

Phylum: Magnoliaphyta (flowering plant)

Class: Magnoliapsida (class of flowering plants)

Order: Lamiales (dicotyledonous)

Family: Verbenacieae

Genus: Tectona (teak)

Species: T. philippinensis

There are three different kinds of teak (genus Tectona) trees. There is the T. grandis (common Teak), which is the most used species of teak. It is found in India and Indo-China. There is the T. hamiltoniana (Dahat Teak). This species is found in Myanmar where it is endangered just like the final species T. philippinensis is endangered where it is found in the Philippines.

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Morphology and Physical Description

The Philippine Teak can grow to maximum height of more than 25 meters or more than 80 feet. Along the straight trunk of the tree there are small, 4-angled branches. These branches have very fine hair on them. On Teak plantations the bottom two thirds of the branches are cut off so the trunk will grow straighter. The T. grandis (common teak, very similar to T. philippinensis) has a maximum height of 40-50 meters or 130-150 feet and has a trunk diameter of 3-5 feet. The leaves are opposite ovate, cuneate (Triangular, stem attaches to point) and finely hairy. The flowers are small and usually a white or bluish color. The fruit produced are also small like the flowers; they are also avoid and have a diameter of about 2.5 centimeters.

The heartwood is a dark golden yellow color. It turns a dark brown when exposed to air. The sapwood is a pale yellowish color. The grain of this straight and sometimes can be wavy. The dust from the wood may cause skin irritations due to the presence of and oil. There is also Silica present in the wood.

Getting Food

As a green leafed plant the T. philippinensis produces its own food through the process of photosynthesis. This process takes sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to form sugar. The plant also gets its nutrients from the soil. It grows best in deep, well-drained and fertile soil, especially on volcanic substrata or on alluvial soils of various origins. Required soil pH is between 6.5 and 7.5. The level of calcium in the soil is also an important factor; if there is not enough calcium in the soil the growth of the tree will be stunted.

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Reproduction

The T. philippinensis reproduces through pollination of flowers. The flowers of the tree are small and usually white or bluish in color. The pollinated flowers produce a fruit with seeds that falls to the ground when ripe and the seeds seep into the soil and grow into a new plant.

Environmental Factors

The Philippine teak is a tropical hardwood tree which means it grows best in moist climates located around the equator. The tree lives in monsoon vegetation forests. Overall the tree tolerates a wide range of climates, but grows best in a warm, moist, tropical climate that hav average annual rain fall of 1250 to 3000mm and has a dry season that lasts from 3 to 6 months.

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Origin and Distribution

The teak tree is native to Southeast Asia in India, Burma, Thailand, and Indochina. When the worth of the tree was realized it was introduced in many other parts of the world such as the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and other parts of Southeast Asia and Africa for the purpose of mass production. It is also grown in the southern part of Florida. The species T. philippinensis is only found in the Philippines and is endangered.

Importance to People

The wood from the trees has an amazing ability to withstand the effects of weathering and insects so it is used fin areas of life where the weathering factor is high. Because of its durability and strength, teakwood is used throughout the world as lumber in shipbuilding and to build furniture, especially outdoor. Teak furniture made for outdoor use has been known to resist the attacks of insects and the corrosive effects of weather for hundreds of years.

Things it is used for include Shipbuilding, joinery, furniture, flooring, carving, cabinetwork, paneling, turnery, things needing a high resistance to acids.

In the Philippines it primarily used for construction purposes such as the support to houses. It is also used as a high quality charcoal. These are the uses in most of the local areas where it is found.

Survivability and Endangered Status

Despite the fact that the Philippine teak has a high durability to weather it is endangered in the Philippines. This is because of the loss of habitat and because the trees most commonly used in the local areas is the young trees so its reproduction cycle has not fully started yet therefore leading to the decrease in numbers.

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Potential Solutions

Can the Philippine teak be used as a source of income for Filipino farmers? It has been established that the wood from this tree is valuable in the foreign market. But not many programs (although I have not yet found any) have been started to utilize this opportunity. Research has shown that the Philippine teak can be grown as a plantation crop so the plant can be mass produced. Farmers who grow the Philippine teak could sell the wood to furniture companies foreign and domestic or to domestic construction companies. The ecology of the tree as not yet been fully researched so how it would affect the surrounding environment is not known. So the introduction of the teak as a plantation crop could have harmful effects. Below are a few possibilities with an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages for each. Along with each possibility is a current status report of the progress made to date on each of the possibilities.

Possibility 1

PLANTATION CROP FOR FARMERS

I have found no current status progress for this possibility. No programs like this have been started in the Philippines. With the ability to be grown on a plantation, farmers can set aside the planting and growing of the Philippine teak as a long term project. Since only the mature trees can be sold it will take a long time to grow to the point where they can be cut down. A farmer can have a field for growing the trees and when they are mature enough to be cut down they can be sold to whoever will buy; lumber companies, furniture companies. And it may be possible to grow the plants until a point when it is safe to transplant them and sell them young trees to a government organization (e.g. forestry department) for the reintroduction of the tree to places where it used to grow.

Advantages:

1. When the trees are finally cut down and sold the income will be very high. I was not able to find out exactly how much the wood will sell for. But it will be a good sum of money for an average farmer. Since in western societies teak furniture is very popular for outdoor furniture a buyer for the wood will not be hard to find.

2. The overall labor input would be low. The first few years of growth of the trees will require the most amount of work. Pruning the branches to ensure the tree will grow with the maximum trunk length and straightness. It has been found that the best way to get a straight trunk is to cut off the bottom 2/3 of the branches and leave the top 1/3.After a certain time the tree will not have to be pruned so often and can just be left to grow. This way the long term project will not distract the farmer and consume time that he would need to spend on the regular crops that he grows which require a lot more attention.

Disadvantages:

1. Despite the rapid grow of teak for the first few years it still takes a long time to reach. It takes about 7 years for teak to grow to a suitable height before it can be cut down. This a long time for a crop and takes long term commitment to carry out the plan. Unfortunately many farmers need crops that will grow quickly and get them a lot of money, which the teak will not do, so the willingness of farmers to do this would probably be low.

2. The cost of this project is unknown (my research did not bring up any costs for growing teak trees). So it may turn out that the cost of growing and maintaining a teak plantation would be too much for the average Filipino farmer.

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Possibility 2

NURSERY FOR TEAK SEEDLINGS

The companies that own large teak plantations do not start out by planting seeds; they use 3 month old trees. So a nursery that starts with the seeds of teak plants and grows them for three month in an environment adjusted to ideal growing conditions for teak can sell the saplings to the larger plantation companies (which are present in the Philippines). And also there might be a possibility that the seedlings can be sold to organizations that are reintroducing Philippine teak to other areas of the Philippines

Advantages:

1. The time for growing the plants (three months) is relatively short compared to the overall life span of the Philippine teak. So this project will not have to wait long before the efficiency and profits can be seen.

2. The environment in the nursery can be adjusted and the conditions of the soils can be easily monitored and if necessary change to ensure that the saplings will grow healthy and fast.

Disadvantages:

1. The price and overall costs of this project are not known either. But this is not intended for farmers so more time and money can be spent on the young plants. The issue of cost may prohibit the nursery from producing a lot of saplings at one time which is what the plantations would be requiring.

2. The amount of time, effort and labor needed to be put into this project would be much more then the plantation possibility. Since the plants are at the stage where they are growing the fastest they will have to be attended to more often. So the amount of work needing to be put onto the project would be hard to meet

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