Guibourtia

Guibourtia is a genus of flowering plants of the legume family ( Fabaceae ).

  • 4.1 Notes and references

Features

Guibourtia species are evergreen trees that reach heights of growth of 40 to 50 meters. The straight and cylindrical stems reach lengths of 25 meters and trunk diameter of one to two meters. These trees have a few, up to 2.5 meters high buttress roots.

The heartwood is pink, bright red or red-brown with purple stripes. In air, it becomes yellow to medium brown. The sapwood is white and clearly demarcated. The texture is fine and uniform. Freshly cut wood has an unpleasant smell, which evaporates during drying.

The composite leaves are opposite.

In racemose inflorescences many flowers are borne. The flowers consist of four sepals, petals absent, ten stamens and a zweifächrigen ovary. The legumes involve only one seed.

Distribution and species

The species are distributed in tropical Africa ( with 13 species ), but also in America ( four species). In Africa, the area of ​​Mali is sufficient to Mozambique and South Africa. The trees are in the tropical rain forest just as well as in the dry savannas, in Angola in the beach area.

There are the following types (selection):

  • Guibourtia arnoldiana ( De Wild. & T. Durand) J. Léonard
  • Guibourtia chodatiana ( Hassl. ) J. Léonard
  • Guibourtia coleosperma ( Benth. ) J. Léonard
  • Guibourtia conjugata ( Bolle ) J. Léonard
  • Guibourtia copallifera Benn.
  • Guibourtia demeusei ( Harms ) J. Léonard
  • Guibourtia ehie (A. Chev. ) J. Léonard
  • Guibourtia hymenaeifolia ( Moric. ) J. Léonard
  • Guibourtia leonensis J. Léonard
  • Guibourtia tessmannii ( Harms ) J. Léonard

Examples of particular woods

Bubinga

This genus provides various woods. A well-known timber is bubinga ( the wood of several species); it is misleading traded in the timber trade as African rosewood, but has nothing in common with rosewood from the Palisanderfamilie. Despite the harshness and severity, it can be processed well. It is used for furniture, turnery, inlays and knife handles. In musical instruments it is used among other things for harps, guitars, recorders and drums. Bubinga is sometimes used in the production of sheets.

Ovangkol

Another type of wood is ovangkol (also Ovengkol ). Ovangkol has a dark brown base color and a fine, wavy, dark brown grain. The hard, but doing relatively elastic tropical wood is used in many ways, including for the construction of musical instruments ( guitars, basses, xylophone ), furniture and parquet. Due to its elasticity, it can be easy to process, does not break easily and also has very good acoustic properties.

Sources and further information

The information for this article was taken from the following websites:

  • Bubinga, Mutenye, Mushibi, Black Chakate, Ovengkol in: H. G. Richter, M. J. Dallwitz: Commercial timbers: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. April 16, 2006.
  • Flore du Cameroun ( French, PDF file, 389 kB)
  • Guibourtia in the Flora of Zimbabwe ( English)
  • Bubinga wood on technik.de
Rosids Wood#Heartwood and sapwood Ovary (botany) Bow and arrow
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