''Manilkara bidentata'' is a species of ''

Manilkara ''Manilkara'' is a genus of trees in the family Sapotaceae. They are widespread in tropical and semitropical locations, in Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, as well as various islands in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. A ...

'' native to a large area of northern South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Common names include bulletwood, balatá, ausubo, massaranduba, quinilla, and (ambiguously) " cow-tree".

Description

The balatá is a large

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

, growing to tall. The leaves are alternate, elliptical, entire, and long. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are white, and are produced at the beginning of the rainy season. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is a yellow berry, in diameter, which is edible; it contains one (occasionally two)

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

(s). Its

latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

is used industrially for products such as chicle.

Uses

The

is extracted in the same manner in which sap is extracted from the

rubber tree ''Hevea brasiliensis'', the Pará rubber tree, ''sharinga'' tree, seringueira, or most commonly, rubber tree or rubber plant, is a flowering plant belonging to the spurge family Euphorbiaceae originally native to the Amazon basin, but is now ...

. It is then dried to form an

inelastic In economics, elasticity measures the percentage change of one economic variable in response to a percentage change in another. If the price elasticity of the demand of something is -2, a 10% increase in price causes the demand quantity to fall ...

rubber-like material. It is almost identical to

gutta-percha Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus ''Palaquium'' in the family Sapotaceae. The name also refers to the rigid, naturally biologically inert, resilient, electrically nonconductive, thermoplastic latex derived from the tree, particularly from ...

(produced from a closely related

southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

n tree), and is sometimes called ''gutta-balatá''. Balatá was often used in the production of high-quality

golf ball A golf ball is a special ball designed to be used in the game of golf. Under the rules of golf, a golf ball has a mass no more than , has a diameter not less than , and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits. Like g ...

s, to use as the outer layer of the ball. Balatá-covered balls have a high spin rate, but do not travel as far as most balls with a

Surlyn An ionomer () ('' iono-'' + '' -mer'') is a polymer composed of repeat units of both electrically neutral repeating units and ionized units covalently bonded to the polymer backbone as pendant group moieties. Usually no more than 15 mole percent ...

cover. Due to the nondurable nature of the material the golf club strikes, balatá-covered balls do not last long before needing to be replaced. While once favored by professional and low-handicap players, they are now obsolete, replaced by newer Surlyn and urethane technology. Today, Brazil is the largest producer of Massaranduba wood, where it is cut in the Amazon rainforest. The tree is a hardwood with a red heart, which is used for furniture and as a

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...

material where it grows. Locals often refer to it as bulletwood for its extremely hard wood, which is so dense that it does not float in water. Drilling is necessary to drive nailed connections. In trade, it is occasionally (and incorrectly) called " brazilwood". The fruit, like that of the related sapodilla ('' M. zapota''), is edible. Though its

heartwood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

may present in a shade of purple, ''Manilkara bidentata'' should not be confused with another tropical tree widely known as "purpleheart", ''

Peltogyne ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central ...

pubescens''. This timber is being used to produce outdoor furniture and is being marketed as "Pacific Jarrah" in Australia. File:Manilkara bidentata MHNT.BOT.2010.6.32.jpg, ''Manilkara bidentata'' - MHNT File:Logging Bulletwood Berbice-Guyana JK.JPG, Harvesting bulletwood in Guyana File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 1336-6 Zweep van balata.jpg, A whip handle of balatá, made before 1939

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q804658 bidentata Plants described in 1807 Trees of South America Natural materials Organic polymers Rubber Elastomers