TEAK LOGS

eak logs are one of the most valuable timber.The tree has a straight but often buttressed stem (i.e., thickened at the base), a spreading crown, and four-sided branch-lets with large quadrangular pith. The leaves are opposite or sometimes whorled in young specimens, about 0.5 meter (1.5 feet) long and 23 cm (9 inches) wide. In shape they resemble those of the tobacco plant, but their substance is hard and the surface rough. The branches terminate in many small white flowers in large, erect, cross-branched Panicles. The fruit is a drupe (fleshy, with a stony seed) 1.7 cm (two-thirds of an inch) in diameter. The bark of the stem is about 1.3 cm (half an inch) thick, gray or brownish gray, the sapwood white; the unseasoned heartwood has a pleasant and strong aromatic fragrance and a beautiful golden yellow color, which darkens into brown, mottled with darker streaks. The timber retains its aromatic fragrance to a great age. It is wildly knowing for is used for ship-building, fine furniture, door and window frames, wharves, bridges, cooling-tower louvers, flooring, paneling, railway cars, and Venetian blinds. An important property of teak is its extremely good dimensional stability. It is strong, of medium weight, and of average hardness. Termites eat the sapwood but rarely attack the heartwood; it is not, however, completely resistant to marine borers.