It is used for furniture components, joinery, domestic flooring, plywood and carving. The heartwood is neither durable nor resistant to termites and the sapwood is liable to powder-post beetle attack. However blunting is slight to severe because of silica and it is easy to glue and veneers easily. It works well with both hand and machine tools and takes a good finish if cutters are kept sharp. The basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) is 0.45 with an air-dry density of 34 pounds per cubic foot.

The freshly cut timber has an unpleasant odor. It has a low luster, sometimes with gum veins that appear as dark streaks. Its texture is fine and even with the grain being moderately straight to interlocked or spiral. The heartwood is uniform light yellow or pinkish brown with a wide sapwood that is not usually differentiated. The tree reaches heights of over 100 ft with boles straight and clear to 60 ft, usually free from buttresses with a trunk diameter 3 to 5 ft Other common names include M’Boy (Sierra Leone, Liberia), Bahia (Ivory Coast), Baya, Subah (Ghana), Elolom (Cameroon), Elelom (Gabon), Vuku, M’Voukou (Zaire), Nzingu or Nazingu (Zambia, Uganda). Mainly West Africa from Sierra Leone to the Congo region and Angola, gregarious in freshwater swamps. The term originated as a description of the hardness of the wood, although there are some soft hardwoods like Balsa ( Ochroma spp.).Ībura/Aubura ( Mitragyna ciliata/Rubiaceae) is a genus composed of about 10 species native to the old World Tropics. The term hardwood is a general term for flowering trees (Angiosperms) that usually have broad leaves that are shed (deciduous) and produce fruits. Woods are listed alphabetically by Common/Trade Names. odorifera” (Huang-hua-li) indicates that the specimen is in the genus Dalbergia (Rosewoods) and believed to be Dalbergia odorifera, but the actual species-level identification cannot be certain. is commonly placed between the genus name and the species name to describe a specimen that is hard to identify because of practical difficulties, such insufficient sample size. Alden, Ph.D., Alden Identification Service, 2021Ĭf – In biological naming conventions, cf. Descriptions of Major Wood Groups, Genera, Generic Groups & Species

Pale moon ebony black persimmon