Category :    Light Hardwoods

Species

General Characteristics

Sapwood light yellow in colour and distinct from heartwood; colour of heartwood yellow-brown in most species, olive-brown in some and brown with a reddish tinge in a few when freshly cut and weathering to dark-brown or chocolate-brown in the course of time; planed surface mostly very lustrous; often with stripe figure on radial surface and conspicuous white or grey-coloured, narrow streaks on all longitudinal surfaces produced by vertical resin canals; texture moderately fine and even; grain interlocked; hard or moderately hard to cut across grain; air dry density ranging from 576 to 848 kg/m³ (36 to 53 lb/ft³); with an average of 688 kg/m³ (43 lb/ft³); moderately durable even in contact with the ground and exposed positions and very durable for internal construction.

Structure

Growth rings absent but the concentric resin canals often simulate growth rings.
Vessels with simple perforation; medium-sized; generally moderately numerous; mostly solitary, the rest in radial or oblique pairs and radial multiples of up to 4 in a series; diffuse but with a tendency to alignment in short oblique lines; tyloses present but not abundant; deposits absent.
Wood parenchyma of both paratracheal and apotracheal types present; paratracheal type as incomplete vasicentric or aliform tending to the confluent pattern; apotracheal type as irregularly spaced bands containing resin canals and occasional terminal layers (without canals) and diffuse or short tangential lines between the rays in some species.
Rays moderately fine, visible to the naked eye; not prominent on a radial surface.

Other Features

Burning splinter test: Splinter burns to ash except H. johorensis, H. sulcata and H. pubescens which burn to charcoal. Froth test: Negative.

Uses