| | CITESwoodID: descriptions, illustrations, identification and information retrieval |
Nomenclature. Family: FABACEAE-FABOIDEAE. Further trade and local names: African ebony, Chinese blackwood, East African blackwood, Mozambique ebony, Senegal ebony, Sudan ebony (GB, US); ébène du Sénégal (FR); granadillo africano (ES); dialâban (SN); pau preto (MZ,PT); babanus (SD); mufunjo (UG); mpingo (KE); babanusi, moghano, sibbe (ET); atiyi (TG)
. Code according to DIN EN 13556: DLML.
CITES(EU) status of protection. Listed in Annex II(B).
Similar timbers. Due to the dark colour and the high density the wood can easily be confused with true ebonies (Diospyros spp.).
Geographic distribution. Tropical Africa. Dry savanna forests from N Senegal to N Nigeria and across Africa to Ethiopia and southwards through E Africa to the Transvaal.
Growth rings, colour, grain, etc. Growth ring boundaries distinct, or indistinct or absent. Heartwood basically brown, black; with streaks (colour striping (brown and black) is quite rare, mostly in wood of Mozambique provenance), or without streaks. Sapwood distinct from heartwood colour. Odour indistinct or absent. Wood heavy and hard (1.10–1.27 g/cm3). Interlocked grain present, or absent.
Hardwood vs softwood. Vessels (pores) present (= hardwood).
Vessels (pores). Wood semi-ring-porous, or diffuse-porous; earlywood pore ring uniseriate (often discontinuous). Vessels (pores) arranged in no specific pattern; in multiples; commonly in short (2–3 vessels) radial rows, or in radial rows of 4 or more. Vessels very unevenly distributed over the cross section. Vessels small, or medium, or large (45–125–240 µm); very few, or few. Tyloses absent. Other deposits in heartwood vessels (pores) present.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma present (visible usually only in the light coloured sapwood); banded and not banded. Parenchyma bands not (only) marginal; narrow; occasionally forming a reticulate pattern with rays. Other macroscopically visible types of axial parenchyma: vasicentric (sparse).
Rays. Rays narrow. Large rays commonly less than 1 mm high.
Storied structure. Storied structure present. Tiers regular (horizontal or slightly inclined), or irregular; 4–5 per axial millimetre. In some specimens the storied structure is very irregular or wanting.
Physical and chemical tests. Heartwood not fluorescent. Water extract not fluorescent; colour shade of water extract colourless to brown. Heartwood extractives not leachable by water. Ethanol extract fluorescent (greenish blue); colour shade of ethanol extract colourless to brown. Froth test positive. Splinter burns to full ash; colour of ash white to grey. Splinter is very flame resistant.
Additional information. • Transverse section + wood surface. Transverse section ca. 10x. Tangential surface, natural size. • Comparison Dalbergia melanoxylon vs Diospyros sp.. Dalbergia melanoxylon (African blackwood) - CITES II. Diospyros sp. (Black ebony). African blackwood and black ebony are only externally similar (heartwood nearly black). Ebony timbers are diffue-porous, often have pore multiples in longer radial chains and no storied arrangement of the rays. However, prerequisite for the recognition of these features is usually the light coloured sapwood, since such features are barely recognizable in the dark heartwood. • Comparison Dalbergia melanoxylon vs Colophospermum mopane. Dalbergia melanoxylon (African blackwood) - CITES II. Colophospermum mopane (Mopane). Both timbers are heavy and possess a dark heartwood, that of Grenadill blackish brown, that of Mopane rather reddish brown. However, the two species can be easily distinguished on the basis of their pore distribution pattern: nearly semi-ringporous in African blackwood and strictly diffuse-porous in Mopane. Contrary to African blackwood, Mopane lacks axial parenchyma bands and storied rays. • Comparison Dalbergia melanoxylon vs Swartzia cubensis. Dalbergia melanoxylon (African blackwood) - CITES II. Swartzia cubensis (Katalox). Dalbergia melanoxylon and also some species of the genus Swartzia form a nearly black heartwood and thus cannot be safely distinguished based on external appearance. Contrary to Grenadill, however, Swartzia species, for example Katalox, are diffuse-porous, have a well developed banded axial parenchyma and higher rays with only 2–3 tiers of storied elements per axial mm.
The interactive key allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting specified attributes, summaries of attributes within groups of taxa, and geographical distribution.
Cite this publication as: ‘Richter, H.G., Gembruch, K., and Koch, G. 2014 onwards. CITESwoodID: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. In English, French, German, and Spanish. Version: 4th April 2023. www.delta-intkey.com’.
