Than Van Canh
Special Forest Products Research Centre
I. Some General features
Fokienia hodginsii(Dunn) Henry et Thomas belongs to Cupresaceae family with many local names such as Do sam, Do thu, Bach phuc kien (Chinese), Thong dau, Thong hoi, May long lanh, May vac. F. hodginsii wood is fine, durable, straight bole, easily sawn, fine texture and is used in construction, fine art articles manufacture, sculpture, statue carving; Roots branches and tree tops are used for essential oil distillation to make perfume. Being buried deep under the ground or water in some years, F. hodginsii wood is not damaged by termites, wood borers.
* Biological characteristics
F. hodginsiiis an evergreen, large timber species with straight bole, pyramidic crown, no buttresses at tree base, 25 – 30m in height and 1 – 2m in diameter. F. hodginsii has a life- span upto hundreds of years. This species has slow growth and in old age, the tree usually has hollow trunk. F. hodginsii roots are shallow without distinct tap root, lateral roots are well developed. The bark is greyish brown in colour and in young stage bark peels in small fragments. In old tree, the bark has longitudinal fissures, inner bark pink, aromatic. F. hodginsii leaves are scale-shaped with two forms: vegetative leaf spreads large on both sides, lanceolate; productive leaf small, scale- shaped, almost overlapping, opposite in pairs, middle scale leaf has convex tip, two scale leaves on both sides have obtuse or pointed tip. Upper leaf- surface green with silvery white powder on lower surface, flowers monoecious. Males cones: axillary, ovule or ovate, 1cm long; female cones: terminal, short, globulus when mature. Flowering is in March – April. Fruit ripe in mid Nov. to early Dec. and splitted into many fruit scales. Fruit globulus, about 2.0 – 2.5cm in diameter. Coat of ripe fruit turns from yellowish green to dark brown. Each fruit scale contains 2 seed, seed with thin wing. Each fruit has 12 – 18 seed. Heavy fruit bearing cycle is about 2 – 4 years. 30 – 40 – year-old trees usually yield good seed.
Latest news
- Project: Study on integrated management of insect pests and diseases on Docynia indica in northern Vietnam
- Project: Study on integrated pest management of major leaf insect pests and stem borer beetles in Acacia hybrid, A. mangium and A. auriculiformis in Vietnam
- Project: Research and develop an integrated management program for control of cinnamon pests in some main cinnamon growing areas (Northern mountainous region and Quang Nam province)
- Project: Pilot plantation and completion of planting techniques of technologically advanced germplasm of Acacia auriculiformis (AA42, AA53, AA56, AA92, AA95) for sawlog in the southeast and south central.
- Project "Research on selection of varieties and intensive afforestation techniques of Prunus arborea (Blume) Kalkman for providing lager timber in the Northeast and Northwest regions, Vietnam"
Oldest news
- Research on Bamboo planting tecnique for bamboo shoot production
- Research on planting of Anisoptera cochinchinensis for veneer raw material supply
- results of forest tree gene resources conservation-period 1996-2000
- Research on possible use of a number of Streptomyces strains for the control of Damping - off disease of Pinus merkusii caused by Fusarium oxysporum
- Characteristics of soil for Pinus merkusii forest plantation and effect of the latter on forest soil fertility (1980 - 1984)
