Neolamarckia Cadamba-Tree
Neolamarckia cadamba, with English common name bur flower tree, Karan, and Leichhardt pine, and called Kadam locally, is an evergreen, tropical tree native to South and Southeast Asia. It has scented orange flowers in dense globe-shaped clusters. The flowers are used in perfumes. The tree is grown as an ornamental plant and for timber and paper-making. Kadam features in Indian Religions and mythologies. A fully mature Kadam tree can reach up to 45 meters in height. It is a large tree with a broad crown and straight cylindrical bole. It is quick growing, with broad spreading branches and grows rapidly in the first 6–8 years. The trunk has a diameter of 100–160 cm, but typically less than that. Leaves are 13–32 cm long.
Flowering usually begins when the tree is 4–5 years old. Kadam flowers are sweetly fragrant, red to orange in color, occurring in dense, globular heads of approximately 5.5 cm diameter. Kadamba flowers are an important raw material in the production of ‘attar’, which is Indian perfume with sandalwood base in which one of the essences is absorbed through hydro-distillation. An extract of the leaves serves as a mouth gargle. The leaf extract has recently been used to produce silver nanoparticles for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.
The fruit of N. cadamba occurs in small, fleshy capsules packed closely together to form a fleshy yellow-orange infract scene containing approximately 8000 seeds. Stamens 5, inserted on the corolla tube, filaments short, and anthers basified. Fruit lets numerous with their upper parts containing 4 hollow or solid structures. Seed are irregularly shaped. The sapwood is white with a light yellow tinge becoming creamy yellow on exposure and is not clearly differentiated from the heartwood.
The fruit and inflorescences are reportedly edible by humans. The fresh leaves are fed to cattle. N. Lamarckian is grown as an ornamental, and for low-grade timber and paper. The timber is used for plywood, light construction, pulp and paper, boxes and crates, dug-out canoes, and furniture components. Kadamba yields a pulp of satisfactory brightness and performance as a hand sheet. The wood can be easily impregnated with synthetic resins to increase its density and compressive strength. The wood has a density of 290–560 kg/cu m at 15% moisture content, a fine to medium texture; straight grain; low luster and has no characteristic odor or taste. It is easy to work, with hand and machine tools, cuts cleanly give a very good surface and are easy to nail. The timber air dries rapidly with little or no degrades. Kadamba wood is very easy to preserve using either open tank or pressure-vacuum systems.
Kadamba is one of the most frequently planted trees in the tropics. The tree is grown along avenues, roadsides, and villages for shade. Kadamba is suitable for reforestation programs. It sheds large amounts of leaf and non-leaf litter which on decomposition improves some physical and chemical properties of soil under its canopy. This reflects an increase in the level of soil organic carbon, cation exchange capacity, available plant nutrients, and exchangeable bases. A yellow dye is obtained from the root bark.
