| | CITESwoodID: descriptions, illustrations, identification and information retrieval |
Nomenclature. Family: FABACEAE-FABOIDEAE. Other trade relevant species: the two species cannot be distinguished by means of wood colour, structure and weight. Dalbergia cubilquitzensis at some time was even listed as synonym for D. tucurensis. Further trade and local names: Yucatan rosewood, Nicaraguan rosewood, Panama rosewood (US); corazón bonito, hormiguillo, palo de rosa, rosadillo (MX); granadillo (BZ, GT, NI); granadillo rojo (HN); rosul (GT, ES). Code according to DIN EN 13556: DLTC.
CITES(EU) status of protection. Listed in Annex II(B).
Similar timbers. Dalbergia palo-escrito and D. ruddiae from Mexico has a similar wood structure.
Geographic distribution. Mexico and Central America. Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama.
Growth rings, colour, grain, etc. Growth ring boundaries indistinct or absent. Heartwood basically brown (extremely variable, from yellowish brown to deep orange brown or dark brown), yellow; with streaks, or without streaks. Sapwood distinct from heartwood colour (light yellowish). Odour indistinct or absent (somewhat aromatic when freshly cut). Wood of medium weight, or heavy and hard (0.65–0.82 g/cm3). Interlocked grain occasionally present, or absent.
Hardwood vs softwood. Vessels (pores) present (= hardwood).
Vessels (pores). Wood diffuse-porous. Vessels (pores) in multiples; commonly in short (2–3 vessels) radial rows and in radial rows of 4 or more. Vessels rather unevenly distributed over the cross section. Vessels large (150–270–310(-)450 µm); very few (2–6). Tyloses absent. Other deposits in heartwood vessels (pores) present.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma present; banded and not banded. Parenchyma bands not (only) marginal; narrow; but much wider than rays. There appears to be a slight difference in axial parenchyma between D. cubilquitzensis and D. tucurensis, perhaps useful for distingishing the two species. Both have marginal bands; between bands the predominant parenchyma type of D. cubilquitzensis is aliform and confluent wheras in D. tucurensis it is predominantely diffuse-in-aggregates (apotracheal), similar to that of the D. retusa group. Other macroscopically visible types of axial parenchyma: diffuse-in-aggregates, vasicentric, aliform lozenge type, aliform winged.
Rays. Rays narrow. Large rays commonly less than 1 mm high.
Storied structure. Storied structure present. Tiers regular (horizontal or slightly inclined); 4–5 per axial millimetre.
Physical and chemical tests. Heartwood not fluorescent. Water extract not fluorescent; colour shade of water extract yellow. Heartwood extractives leaching out when in contact with water (yellowish brown). Ethanol extract fluorescent (pale green); colour shade of ethanol extract colourless to brown, or yellow. Froth test positive. Splinter burns to full ash; colour of ash bright white.
Additional information. • Transverse section + wood surface. Transverse section ca. 10x. Radial surface, natural size.
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’.
