Category :    Medium Hardwoods

Species

General Characteristics

General Characteristics Sapwood grey-white and distinct; colour of heartwood red-brown ordark red-brown, weathering to dark-brown; planed surface with poorish lustre; with stripe figure on radial surface and feathery tracery on tan-gential surface; layers of abnormal tissue (included phloem of the concentric type) generally present in large-sized specimens; texture coarse and even; grain interlocked; very hard to cut across grain; air dry density ranging from 800 to 865 kg/m³ (50 to 54 lb/ ft3); moderately durable under severe conditions of exposure.

Structure

Growth rings absent.
Vessels with simple perforation; moderately large; generally few in number; solitary and in radial multiples of 2 to 3 or occasionally more than 4 and occasional clusters; sometimes the solitary vessels predominating and sometimes the radial pairs; with a tendency to arrangement in tangential lines; tyloses generally absent; vessel deposit common.
Wood parenchyma abundant and visible to the naked eye as wavy confluent bands (paratracheal) and occasional narrow terminal lines (apotracheal) which are less wavy.
Rays moderately fine, not generally visible to the naked eye due to lack of contrast in colour from the ground mass of fibres; not prominent on a radial surface.
Ripple marks absent.

Other Features

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

Uses