Nature's Palette: A Resource for Selecting Wood Species
A Resource for Selecting Wood Species
Nature’s Palette:
A Resource for Selecting Wood Species
The forests provide a natural, wondrous and renewable palette of wood species in an amazing multitude of colors and grain patterns. There are literally thousands of species globally that spark the imagination of our readers. Each edition of International Wood provides insight into the wide range of projects that successfully incorporate imported species. On the list to the right, we have made every effort to identify the species referenced in this edition by its more common name and scientific names. Clearly communicate your needs with a U.S. importer, manufacturer or supplier who can best assist you in locating the most appropriate species for your project. You can find more detailed information on most of these species in the following pages and at the digital online editon.
What does the janka ranking scale mean?
- African Etimoe (Copaifera spp.)
- African Pommelé and Figured Sapele (Entandrophragma cylindricum)
- Amboyna (Pterocarpus indicus)
- Anegre (Pouteria spp. formerly Aningeria genus)
- Antiaris (Antiaris spp.)
- Ayous (Triplochiton scleroxylon)
- Balau, Red (Shorea spp.)
- Beech, European (Fagus sylvatica)
- Beli (Julbernardia pellegriniana)
- Birch, Baltic (Betula spp.)
- Birch, Karlian (Betula spp.)
- Bloodwood (Brosimum paraense)
- Bocote (Cordia spp.)
- Bosse (Guarea spp.)
- Boxwood (Phyllostylon rhamnoides)
- Brazilian Rosewood (Dalbergia nigra)
- Bubinga (Guibourtia spp.)
- Caribbean Heart Pine (Pinus caribaea)
- Cedar, Spanish (Cedrela odorata)
- Chengal (Neobalanocarpus heimii)
- Circassian Walnut (Juglans regia)
- Cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa)
- Cumaru (Dipteryx odorata)
- Doussie (Afzelia spp.)
- East Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia)
- Ebony (Diospyros spp.)
- Ekki (Lophira alata)
- Elm, Carpathian (Ulmus spp.)
- European White Oak (Quercus robur)
- Garapa (Apuleia leiocarpa)
- Greenheart (Chlorocardium rodiei)
- Guanacaste (Enterolobium cyclocarpum)
- Hura (Hura crepitans)
- Ipé (Handroanthus spp./Tabebuia spp.)
- Iroko (Chlorophora excelsa)
- Jatoba, Brazilian Cherry (Hymenaea courbaril)
- Kempas (Koompassia malaccensis)
- Keruing (Dipterocarpus spp.)
- Khaya/African Mahogany (Khaya spp.)
- Koa (Acacia koa)
- Lati (Amphimas pterocarpoides)
- Limba, White (Terminalia superba)
- Macassar Ebony (Diospyros spp.)
- Maccaranduba (Platymiscium spp.)
- Mahogany, Genuine (Swietenia macrophylla)
- Makore (Tieghemella heckelii)
- Mango (Mangifera indica)
- Massaranduba/Brazilian redwood (Manilkara spp.)
- Meranti/Lauan (Shorea spp.)
- Merbau (Intsia spp.)
- Morado (Machaerium scleroxylon)
- Obeche (Triplochiton scleroxylon)
- Okoume (Aucoumea klaineana)
- Padauk (Pterocarpus spp.)
- Paldao (Dracontomelon dao)
- Pau Ferro (Machaerium spp.)
- Peruvian Walnut (Juglans spp.)
- Purpleheart (Peltogyne spp.)
- Red Grandis (eucalyptus grandis)
- Red Manioqueria (Qualea spp.)
- Rosewood (Dalbergia spp.)
- Rosewood, Honduran (Dalbergia stevensonii)
- Rosewood, Madagascar (Dalbergia baroni)
- Sandé (Brosimum utile)
- Santa Maria (Calophyllum brasiliense)
- Santos Rosewood/Pau Ferro (Machaerium spp.)
- Sapele (Entandrophragma spp.)
- Shedua (Guibourtia ehie)
- Shibidan (Aspidosperma album)
- Tali (Erythrophleum suaveolens)
- Tamo Ash (Fraxinus mandshurica)
- Tatabu (Diplotropis purpurea)
- Teak (Tectona grandis)
- Tigerwood (Astronium graveolens)
- Tornillo (Cedrelinga catenaeformis)
- Utile/Sipo (Entandrophragma utile)
- Wallaba (Eperua falcata)
- Wenge (Millettia laurentii)
- Yellowheart (Euxylophora paraensis)
- Zebrawood (Microberlinia brazzavillensis)
- Ziricote (Cordia dodecandra)
REFERENCES:
– USDA Forest Products Lab: www.fpl.fs.usda.gov/search/commonname_request.php
– The Wood Database: www.wood-database.com
What does the janka ranking scale mean?
The janka rating scale measures the relative hardness of woods. Because hardness is often an important factor and hardness varies for each species, the janka scale is an excellent tool to compare wood species and identify appropriate choices.
Chechen
SPECIES: Metopium brownie
ORIGIN: Africa
COMMON APPLICATIONS: Veneer, plywood and paneling, as well as furniture components, joinery, and finished furniture.
CHARACTERISTICS / APPEARANCE: The wood is whitish or light yellow-brown with no distinction between heartwood and sapwood. Medium texture with interlocked grain. High luster. Works easily with hand and machine tools and can glue and nail well.
JANKA HARDNESS SCALE: 2,250 lbf • • • • •
COMMENTS: Also known as Caribbean Rosewood. Very durable and highly resistant to insect attack.
Garapa / Brazilian Ash
SPECIES: Apuleia leiocarpa
ORIGIN: South America
COMMON APPLICATIONS: Exterior joinery, flooring, stairs, decking, dock and boatbuilding.
CHARACTERISTICS / APPEARANCE: Garapa is a fine grained wood with a light yellow to warm golden brown hue and darkens with age. It has a fine straight-grained, interlocked medium texture. This wood is fairly easy to work, despite its density. It glues easily and is very stable once glued. It saw, nails, and screws well with little to no blunting effect on tools.
JANKA HARDNESS SCALE: 1,650 lbf • • • • •
COMMENTS: Garapa is naturally water-resistant, less vulnerable to insects, rot and decay. With an excellent durability and a high resistance to daily wear, it has a long lifespan of 25 years or more. Garapa also features a Class A fire rating.
Ipé
SPECIES: Handroanthus spp*./Tabebuia* spp*.* (formerly placed in the Tabebuia genus)
ORIGIN: Central and South America; also farmed commercially.
CHARACTERISTICS / APPEARANCE: Heartwood typically olive-brown, with variations in color from a reddish-brown to a dark blackish brown. Sapwood is yellowish-white and easily distinguished. Grain varies from straight to irregular and sometimes interlocked. Ipe is a difficult wood to work with high cutting resistance during sawing and machining. It planes smoothly with tearout in interlocked areas. Can be difficult to glue properly and surface preparation prior to gluing is recommended. All of the same qualities that make Ipe a challenging wood to work with make it so desired—it is extremely hard and dense with high durability and shock resistance.
JANKA HARDNESS SCALE: 3,510 lbf • • • • •
COMMENTS: Ipé is a wood of extremes—extremely dense and durable but as a result difficult to work. Its incredible hardness and strength make it well suited to exterior decking and siding. If left unfinished, graying of the wood will occur, but can last over 20 years outside without preservatives or additional treatments.
Lati / White Wenge
SPECIES: Amphimas pterocarpoides / A. ferrugineus
ORIGIN: Central and West Africa
COMMON APPLICATIONS: Veneer, plywood, interior trim, furniture, and flooring.
CHARACTERISTICS / APPEARANCE: Heartwood is a light yellowish brown. Yellowish sapwood isn’t always defined from heartwood. Lati is sometimes called white wenge because of the similarity of its grain patterns to wenge (Millettia laurentii)—particularly on flatsawn surfaces. In both cases, this is due to very wide bands of parenchyma throughout the wood. The pale yellowish color tends to darken to a more golden yellow over time.
JANKA HARDNESS SCALE: 1,200 lbf • • • • •
COMMENTS: Generally not regarded as being very stable in service, which is aggravated by the fact that the flatsawn surface (i.e., the least stable surface) is considered the most decorative and showy. Nonetheless, flatsawn lati has a unique grain appearance that is very similar to wenge, though in a golden yellow color rather than dark brown. Botanically, lati and wenge aren’t closely related, and occur in two separate genera, Amphimas and Millettia, respectively.
Sapele
SPECIES: Entandrophragma cylindricum
ORIGIN: West Africa
COMMON APPLICATIONS: Veneer, furniture, cabinetry, musical instruments, flooring, boatbuilding, and turnings.
CHARACTERISTICS / APPEARANCE: Sapele heartwood is golden to a dark-reddish brown with a medium texture and high luster. Sapele contains an interlocking grain that produces light and dark ribbon stripes throughout the boards and is also found in a wide variety of other figured grain patterns. Sapele finishes well, with good gluing and nailing properties. It stains well and is suited to a variety of finishes retaining its color over time.
JANKA HARDNESS SCALE: 1,510 lbf • • • • •
COMMENTS: Sapele is most often used as a window and door material because it is so stable and very rot and weather resistant. The grain and pore structure is tight, making it a great substrate for painted surfaces as well. Among its more exotic uses is that in guitar manufacturing, in the top, back and sides of acoustic guitar bodies as well as the tops of electric guitar bodies.
Tali / Sasswood
SPECIES: Erythrophleum suaveolens
ORIGIN: Central and West Africa
COMMON APPLICATIONS: joinery, flooring, railway sleepers, harbor and dock work, turnings, construction and bridges. It is also used in boat building and marine construction.
CHARACTERISTICS / APPEARANCE: The heartwood is yellowish brown to reddish brown and darkens upon exposure. The sapwood is distinctive in the whitish to pinkish-white color. Fine pores, scattered and numerous. Texture is medium and uniform. This species is very high density, resulting in a very hard wood. It is a very durable wood and suitable for exterior use, even untreated. Excellent stability, with high bending strength qualities.
JANKA HARDNESS SCALE: 2,920 lbf • • • • •
COMMENTS: Easy to work with both hand and machine tools. Also has excellent finishing qualities.
Tamo Ash
SPECIES: Fraxinus mandshurica
ORIGIN: Northern Asia (China, Korea, Japan, and Russia)
COMMON APPLICATIONS: Veneer, musical instruments (drum shells and guitars), fine furniture, marquetry, and other small speciality wood items.
CHARACTERISTICS / APPEARANCE: The heartwood is a light to medium brown color. Sapwood can be very wide, and tends to be a beige or light brown; not always clearly or sharply demarcated from heartwood. Deeply figured grain patterns are possible, sometimes called “peanut” figure, so called because the rotary-sliced veneer has an almost three-dimensional patterning that looks like peanut shells. Grain is generally straight, though portions with wild/figured grain are commonly sold. With a coarse uneven texture
JANKA HARDNESS SCALE: 1,010 lbf • • • • •
COMMENTS: Tamo Ash has a grain pattern and figure that is completely unique (the closest in appearance may be Quilted Maple). In its plain, unfigured form, Tamo Ash is very similar to the North American species Black Ash (Fraxinus nigra), and is usually simply referred to as Japanese Ash (with the name Tamo being reserved for the more figured sections of wood).. When stained, ash can look very similar to oak (Quercus spp.).
THE UN CITY’S WATERFRONT FAÇADE WAS CONSTRUCTED WITH STRONG CONSIDERATION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT USING FSC-CERTIFIED TALI.
Frequently asked questions
What is the purpose of the wood species list provided in this edition of International Wood?+
The list identifies species referenced throughout the edition by both common and scientific names, helping readers communicate their needs to U.S. importers, manufacturers, or suppliers. More detailed information on most species is available in the following pages and in the digital online edition at www.iwpawood.org.
What does the Janka ranking scale measure, and why is it useful when choosing wood species?+
The Janka rating scale measures the relative hardness of woods. Because hardness varies significantly by species and is often an important factor in specification, the Janka scale serves as a tool to compare species and identify appropriate choices for a project.
Why is Garapa (Brazilian Ash) considered a durable exterior wood?+
Garapa is naturally water-resistant and less vulnerable to insects, rot, and decay, giving it a lifespan of 25 years or more. It also carries a Class A fire rating and has a Janka hardness of 1,650 lbf, making it suitable for decking, stairs, dock, and boatbuilding applications.
Why is Lati sometimes called 'white wenge'?+
Lati's grain patterns closely resemble those of wenge (Millettia laurentii), particularly on flatsawn surfaces, due to very wide bands of parenchyma throughout the wood. However, the two species are not closely related botanically—lati belongs to Amphimas and wenge to Millettia—and lati presents a golden yellow color rather than wenge's dark brown.
What makes Tamo Ash's appearance unique among commercial woods?+
Tamo Ash can display a deeply figured grain called 'peanut' figure, which produces a nearly three-dimensional pattern resembling peanut shells when rotary-sliced into veneer. The closest comparable figure in appearance is Quilted Maple, and the name 'Tamo' is typically reserved for these more figured sections while plainer wood is sold as Japanese Ash.
How was FSC-certified Tali used at the UN City waterfront façade?+
The UN City's waterfront façade was constructed using FSC-certified Tali, chosen with strong consideration for the environment. Tali's very high density, durability, and suitability for exterior use even untreated make it well suited to this kind of waterfront application.
What is unusual about the 'Chechen' entry listed in this wood species resource?+
The article lists Chechen (Metopium brownie) with an origin of Africa and notes it is also known as Caribbean Rosewood, describing the wood as whitish to light yellow-brown with interlocked grain, high luster, and a Janka hardness of 2,250 lbf. It is cited as very durable and highly resistant to insect attack, commonly used for veneer, plywood, paneling, joinery, and furniture.