Category :    Light Hardwoods

Species

General Characteristics

Sapwoodlighterincolour and distinct from heartwood;colourofheartwood red-brown weathering to a dark-red; planed surface fairly lustrous; stripe figure on radial surface; grey-coloured, narrow streaks on all longitudinal surface produced by concentric layers of resin canals; texture rather coarse but even; grain interlocked and wavy; moderately hard to cut across grain; air dry density ranging from 560 to 865 kg/m³ (35 to 54 lb/ft³) averaging 704 kg/m³ (44 lb/ft³); moderately durable in exposed positions or in contact with the ground.

Structure

Growth rings absent.
Vessels with simple perforation; moderately large; few or moderately few in number; mostly solitary, the rest in oblique or radial pairs and radial multiples of up to 4 in a series; diffuse but withatendency lobe aligned in short, obIiquelines;tyloses present but generally not abundant; vessel deposits absent.
Wood parenchyma as both parairachcal and apoiracheal; paratracheal type as incomplete, narrow vasiceniric, aliform or locally conilucnt; the apotracheal type as irregularly spaced bands enclosing resin canals and as diffuse strands which may form short, narrow lines between the rays.
Rays medium-sized and visible to the naked eye on cross-section; fairly conspicuous on a radial surface.

Other Features

Burning splinter test: Splintcrmosily burns to charcoal. (This feature has beenfound to be rather inconsistent with the species). Froth test: Negative.
* only the dark-coloured varieties of these timbers are included.

Uses

The timber is extremely popular as a general utility timber, being suitable for furniture manufacture, high class interior finishing, flooring, panelling and partitioning, mouldings and skirtings, fancy doors, sliced and rotary cut veneers.