Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Teak

Hindi Name : सागौन | Scientific Name : Tectona grandis
Family : Verbenaceae
Uses : Teakwood has been used in the manufacture of charcoal and as fuelwood, but nowadays it is usually considered too valuable for anything but pruning remnants and other rejects to be used in this way. A rare combination of superior physical and mechanical properties makes it a paragon of timber. Being classified as very resistant to teredo activity, the wood is excellent timber for bridge building and other construction in contact with water such as docks, quays, piers and floodgates in fresh water. In house building, teakwood is particularly suitable for interior and exterior joinery (windows, solid panel doors and framing) and is used for floors exposed to light to moderate pedestrian traffic. It is also used quite extensively for garden furniture. Other uses are for building poles, transmission line poles, fence posts, wallboards, beams, woodwork, boxes, musical instruments, toys, railway sleepers and railcar construction. Both the rootbark and the young leaves produce a yellowish-brown or reddish dye, which is used for paper, clothes and matting. In traditional medicine, a wood powder paste has been used against bilious headaches and swellings and internally against dermatitis or as a vermifuge. The charred wood soaked in poppy juice and made into a paste has been used to relieve the swelling of the eyelids. The bark has been used as an astringent and the wood as a hair tonic.
Native: India, Indonesia, Myanmar
General Description:

It is a large, deciduous tree reaching over 30m in height in favourable conditions. Crown open with many small branches; the bole is often buttressed and may be fluted, up to 15m long below the 1st branches, up to 1m dbh. Bark is brown, distinctly fibrous with shallow, longitudinal fissures. The root system is superficial, often no deeper than 50cm, but roots may extend laterally up to 15m from the stem. The very large, 4-sided leaves are shed for 3-4 months during the latter half of the dry season, leaving the branchlets bare. Shiny above, hairy below, vein network clear, about 30 x 20cm but young leaves up to 1m long. Flowers small, about 8mm across, mauve to white and arranged in large, flowering heads, about 45cm long; found on the topmost branches in the unshaded part of the crown. Fruit is a drupe with 4 chambers; round, hard and woody, enclosed in an inflated, bladder-like covering; pale green at first, then brown at maturity.