Balatá

Balatá

Taxobox
name = Balatá
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
ordo = Ericales
familia = Sapotaceae
genus = "Manilkara"
species = "M. bidentata"
binomial = "Manilkara bidentata"
binomial_authority = (A. DC.) Chev.

Balatá ("Manilkara bidentata") is a species of "Manilkara" native to a large area of northern South America, Central America and the Caribbean. It is also the natural latex made from its sap. The Guyanese call the wood, Purple-Heart.

Balatá is a large tree growing to 30-45 m tall. The leaves are alternate, elliptical, entire, and 10-20 cm long. The flowers are white, and are produced at the beginning of the rainy season. The fruit is a yellow berry, 3-5 cm in diameter, which is edible; it contains one (occasionally two) seed(s).

Uses

The latex is extracted in the same manner in which sap is extracted from the rubber tree. It is then dried to form an inelastic rubber-like material. It is almost identical to gutta-percha (produced from a closely related southeast Asian tree), and is sometimes called gutta-balatá.

Balatá was often used in the production of high-quality golf balls, 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 (TM: http://www2.dupont.com/Surlyn/en_US/) cover. Due to the nondurable nature of the material that the golf club strikes, Balatá-covered balls do not last long before requiring replacement. While once favored by professional and low-handicapped players, they are now obsolete, replaced by newer Surlyn and urethane technology.

Balatá trees are farmed along the banks of the Amazon River and its tributaries, such as the Içá. It is also the most important timber tree on Puerto Rico.

The tree is a hardwood with a red heart, which is used for furniture and as a construction material where it grows. Locals often refer to it as "Bulletwood" for its extremely hard wood, which is sufficiently dense that it does not float in water. Pre-drilling is necessary to drive nailed connections.

The fruit, like that of the related Sapodilla ("Manilkara zapota"), is edible, with an excellent flavour.


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Balata [1] — Balata (Gummi Balata, span. Chicle, Leche de popa, amerikan. Guttapercha), ein der Guttapercha nahe verwandter Körper, der (koagulierte) Milchsaft des in Guayana einheimischen Bully tree oder Sternapfelbaumes (Mimusops Balata Gaertn. = Sapota… …   Lexikon der gesamten Technik

  • balata — [ balata ] n. f. • 1722; probablt d o. tupi ♦ Gomme d un arbre tropical, apparentée à la gutta percha, utilisée dans la fabrication d objets durs et non cassants. ● balata nom masculin Nom commun à trois genres d arbres de Guyane et d Amérique… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Balata [2] — Balata. Der die Balata liefernde Baum heißt richtig Mimusops globosa Gaertn. (= Mimusops Balata Crueg. = Sapota Muelleri Linden). Außer Britisch Guyana und Surinam liefert auch Venezuela größere Mengen von Balata. Die Ausfuhr aus Ciudad Bolivar… …   Lexikon der gesamten Technik

  • balata — BALÁTA s.f. Gumă extrasă dintr un arbore din America tropicală, servind la fabricarea izolanţilor, la impregnarea curelelor de transmisie etc. [< fr. balata]. Trimis de LauraGellner, 18.11.2004. Sursa: DN  BALÁTA s. f. gumă dintr un arbore… …   Dicționar Român

  • balata — balàta ž <G mn balátā> DEFINICIJA 1. bot. stablo (Mimusops balata) raste u tropskim krajevima Amerike (Venezuela, Gvajana), kultivira se u Aziji, teško je i tvrdo, čvrsto, elastično i trajno 2. drvo (vrsta Mimusops balata, Manilkara… …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • Balata — Balata, der eingetrocknete Milchsaft des Bullettree, Mimusops Balata (Sapota Muelleri), in Guayana und Venezuela, zu dessen Gewinnung man die Stämme fällt (Venezuela) oder rinnenförmige Einschnitte in die Bäume macht. Der sich reichlich… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • balată — balátă s. f., pl. baláte Trimis de siveco, 10.08.2004. Sursa: Dicţionar ortografic  BALÁTĂ s.f. (Liv.) Poezie (medievală) care se cânta pe o melodie de dans, formată din una sau mai multe strofe şi un refren, interpretat de obicei în cor. [pl.… …   Dicționar Român

  • Balata — ist eine natürliche, harte, hornartige, in der Wärme plastische Substanz. Man gewinnt sie, indem man den Milchsaft (Latex) des südamerikanischen Balatabaumes eintrocknet. Balata ist das Trans Isomer des Naturkautschuks, also ein geometrisch… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Balata — Bal a*ta, n. [Sp., prob. fr. native name.] 1. A West Indian sapotaceous tree ({Bumelia retusa}). [Webster 1913 Suppl.] 2. The bully tree ({Minusops globosa}); also, its milky juice ({); also, its milky juice (}), which when dried constitutes an… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Balata — Balata, Judenquartier in den Vorstädten mehrerer morgenländischer Städte, bes. in Constantinopel …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Balata — Balăta, ein der Guttapercha ähnlicher Stoff aus dem Milchsaft des Sapotillbaums …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

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