Category :    Light Hardwoods

Species

General Characteristics

Sapwood not differentiated from heartwood by colour, wood cream-white, weather¬ing to pale-straw; planed surface not particularly lustrous; without figure (except for a small core which is streaked with alternating layers of blue and marble); texture moderately fine and even; grain shallowly interlocked; moderately hard to cut across grain; air dry density on an average 640 kg/m³ (40 lb/ft³) (but the predominant species which form the bulk of commercial supplies namely G. bancanus only 608 kg/m³); not durable in contact with the ground or in exposed positions.

Structure

Growth rings indistinct or absent.
Vessels with simple perforation; generally medium-sized; few or moderately few in number; as solitary and in radial groups of up to 4 in a series; sometimes the solitary vessels and sometimes the radial groups predominating; with a slight tendency to arrangement in tangential lines; tyloses and deposits absent.
Wood parenchyma exclusively paratracheal; as aliform with very extended wings or confluent; Dith flecks rather common. Rays fine not visible to the naked eye; not prominent on a radial surface. Ripple marks absent. Intercellular canals absent.

Other Features

Burning splinter test: Splinter burns to ash.
Froth test: Negative.

Uses