Category :    Medium Hardwoods

Species

General Characteristics

Sapwood lighter-coloured and moder-ately distinct from heartwood; colour of heartwood dark purple-brown when fresh but losing much of the purple colour after weathering and turning to a dark brown; planed surface dull (without any lustre); stripe figure on radial surface; texture moderately fine and even; grain interlocked; freshly cut wood with a strong garlic-like odour; hard to cut across grain; air dry density averaging 835 kg/m³ (52 lb/ft³); moderately durable on land and believed to be very resistant to toredo attack.

Structure

Growth rings absent.
Vessels with simple perforation; medium-sized; moderately numerous or occasionally numerous; very few as solitary, mostly in radial pairs or radial multiples of 3 to 8 in a series; rather unevenly distributed; with a distinctly radial arrangement; tyloses generally abundant; deposits common.
Wood parenchyma exclusively apotracheal, as diffuse or as short and narrow tangential lines between the rays; sometimes in netlike formation (with a hand lens visibility of wood parenchyma is generally poor).
Rays moderately fine; generally not clearly visible to the naked eye and not prominent on a radial surface.
Ripple marks absent.
Intercellular canals absent.

Other Features

Burning splinter test: Splinter only chars.
Froth test: Negative.

Uses