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Teak: The King of Timbers

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The Teak Genome

Part of the book series: Compendium of Plant Genomes ((CPG))

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Abstract

Teak is regarded as the ‘King of Timbers’ due to its captivating wood quality and aesthetics. Because of its high durability, it can be used for a wide variety of indoor and outdoor purposes. The presence of oil in the teakwood makes it resistant to insects, fungi and termites and helps to withstand extended exposure to water as well as chemicals. The ease of workmanship is relatively high in teakwood compared to other timbers with better nail and screw holding ability, making them the best choice for furniture. It is one of the first species to be established as pure plantations for commercial purposes. Teak was once handled on 80–100-year rotations, but for commercial wood production, rotation periods have been limited to 20 or 30 years with adequate heartwood grain patterns. Heartwood in teak trees begins to develop between 4–5 years of age and the amount of heartwood produced varies with site conditions and silvicultural management. Teak plantations also contribute to climate change mitigation by sequestering carbon for longer periods and the global acceptance of teak makes it a great choice in forest landscape restoration programmes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, Thrissur, Kerala, India

    Sandeep Sasidharan

  2. Division of Plant Biotechnology and Cytogenetics, Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (ICFRE), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

    Yasodha Ramasamy

Authors
  1. Sandeep Sasidharan
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  2. Yasodha Ramasamy
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Correspondence to Sandeep Sasidharan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (ICFRE), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

    Yasodha Ramasamy

  2. Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Esteban Galeano

  3. Faculty of Forestry, Biodiversity and Wildlife Conservation Department, University of Forestry and Environmental Science, Yezin, Myanmar

    Thwe Thwe Win

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Sasidharan, S., Ramasamy, Y. (2021). Teak: The King of Timbers. In: Ramasamy, Y., Galeano, E., Win, T.T. (eds) The Teak Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79311-1_1

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