page_title: Gmelina arborea
section_title: Utilization of the species
hierarchical_section_title: Gmelina arborea / Utilization of the species
caption_attribution_description: Verbenaceae (verbena, or vervain family)&#160;» Gmelina arborea g-MEL-in-uh -- named for Johann Gottlieb Gmelin, German professor and naturalist ar-BOR-ee-uh -- meaning, tree-like commonly known as: Cashmere tree, coomb teak, goomar teak, kashmir tree, Malay bush-beech, white beech, white teak • Assamese: gomari • Bengali: গামার gamar, গাম্ভারি gambhari • Gujarati: શેવન shevan • Hindi: भद्रपर्णी bhadraparni, गमहर or गम्हड़ gamhar • Kannada: ಕಾಶ್ಮೀರಿ ಮರ kaashmiri mara, ಶಿವನಿಮರ shivanimara • Khasi: dieng lophiang • Konkani: शिवन shivan, सीनी sini • Malayalam: കുമിഴ് kumizh, കുമ്പിള്‍ kumpil • Manipuri: ৱাঙ wang • Marathi: शिवन or शिवण shivan, थोरशिवणी thorshivani • Mizo: thlanvawng • Naga: imbeh ching • Nepalese: कामरी kamari • Oriya: bhodropornni, butalo, thlanvawng • Punjabi: ਫਕਡ਼ਾ phakra • Sanskrit: गम्भारी gambhari, सिन्धुपर्णी sindhuparni, सिन्धुवेषणम् sindhuveshanam, स्तूलत्वचा stulatvacha • Tamil: குமுதை kumutai, கூம்பல் kumpal, பெருங்குமிழ் peru-n-kumil • Telugu: పెద్ద గుముడు టేకు pedda gumudu teku Native to: s. China, Indian sub-continent, Indo-China, Malesia, Philippines References: Flowers of India • Wikipedia • NPGS • PIER species info • ENVIS • eFlora
context_page_description: Gmelina arborea, locally known as gamhar, is a fast-growing deciduous tree in the family Lamiaceae.
context_section_description: Gmelina arborea timber is reasonably strong for its weight. It is used in construction, furniture, carriages, sports, musical instruments and artificial limbs. Once seasoned, it is a very steady timber and moderately resistant to decay and ranges from very resistant to moderately resistant to termites.
  Its timber is highly esteemed for door and window panels, joinery and furniture especially for drawers, wardrobes, cupboards, kitchen and camp furniture, and musical instruments because of its light weight, stability and durability. It is also used for bentwood articles. In boat building it is used for decking and for oars. Gmelina arborea is a popular timber for picture and slate frames, turnery articles and various types of brush backs, brush handles and toys also for handles of chisels, files, saws, screw drivers, sickles etc. The wood is also used for manufacturing tea chests and general purpose plywood, blackboards, frame core and cross bands of flush door shutters. In the instrument industry gambhar timber is widely employed for the manufacture of drawing boards, plane tables, instrument boxes, thermometer scales and cheaper grade metric scales. It is also used in artificial limbs, carriages and bobbins. It is an approved timber for handles of tennis rackets, frames and reinforcements of carom boards and packing cases and crates. Gamhar is used in papermaking and in the matchwood industry too.
  The Lion Throne, the most important, and last surviving, of the eight royal thrones of Myanmar, now in the National Museum in Yangon, is carved from Gmelina arborea wood.
  Gmelina arborea leaves are considered good for cattle (crude protein – 11.9%) and are also used as a feed to eri-silkworm.
  'Kumizh tree' when burnt yields the whitest possible ash; mention is made by certain 'rock art enthusiasts' that this ash is one of the ingredients in the semi-solid white ochre used to draw the very ancient 'cave paintings,' as old as 3,000 to 5,000 years or more; found in the dense forests of Tamil Nadu.
  Gmelina arborea wood
caption: Bark
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ18", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.0", "Image DateTime": "2009:01:31 11:00:04", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "496", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D2": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8084", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8008", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:01:31 11:00:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:01:31 11:00:04", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-33/100", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "302/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "7888", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "368", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}