Comparative analysis of bark characteristics in Pterocarpus marsupium at various location of India

Abstract

Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb. is a valuable multipurpose forest tree in India and Sri Lanka, popularly known as Bijasal because of its high-quality wood and pharmaceutically bioactive compounds, especially from the stem bark and heartwood. Bark type is an important feature for characterization of Pterocarpus species, which varies according to its seed sources. Therefore, bark characteristics variation study was conducted in two states viz., Gujarat (GJ) and Maharashtra (MH) which were selected purposively as the site known for its abundantly presence; the different five sites of each state were used as seed sources depending on the available resources.  In P. marsupium, mostly rough bark was observed in all seed sources, except GJ-PM-4 and MH-PM-1 in which the bark texture was smooth, but in MH-PM-1 the rough bark was found at lower part of tree stem; in GJ-PM-4 and GJ-PM-3 trees the bark was fissures and cracks; whereas in MH-PM-5, special feature of bark was observed that the bark are rough and exfoliation without exudates to no-exfoliation with equal cracks; the vertical fissured bark was mostly observed in all seed sources of P. marsupium except GJ-PM-4 and GJ-PM-5. The bark color mostly varied from light brown to blackish brown in all seed sources trees, except in GJ-PM-3, GJ-PM-4, GJ-PM-3 and MH-PM-5 in which the bark color was yellowish brown; in case of bark flakes pattern varied from regular to irregular in all seed sources; while flakes shape was varied from no flakes to strips, square and rectangular, whereas in GJ-PM-3 the inverted flakes was recorded; while in the barks of MH-PM-3 had lunar shape flakes with irregular type.