Category :    Light Hardwoods

Species

General Characteristics

Sapwood not differentiated from heartwood by colour; wood grey-pink or mauve-grey; planed surface without lustre; without any figure but longitudinal surface mildly speckled by the darker-coloured rays; texture very fine and even; grain interlocked; very soft to cut across grain; air dry density on an average 432 kg/m³ (27 lb/ft³); not durable.

Structure

Growth rings absent. Vessels with scalariform perforation but due to the small size of the vessels these are not clearly visible with a hand lens; size ranging from moderately small to just about medium; moderately numerous or very numerous; solitary and in radial pairs and multiples of 3 to 4 and few seemingly tangential or oblique pairs and occasional clusters; sometimes solitary vessels more than radial groups and sometimes the radial groups predominating; evenly distributed without any arrangement; tyloses and deposits absent.
Wood parenchyma absent or indis¬tinct.
Rays very fine or fine; just visible to the naked eye or not visible; comparatively prominent on a radial surface.
Ripple marks absent.
Intercellular canals Large horizontal canals clearly visible with a lens and in some cases visible to the naked eye.

Other Features

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

Uses