| | CITESwoodID: descriptions, illustrations, identification and information retrieval |
Nomenclature. Family: FABACEAE-FABOIDEAE. Other trade relevant species: Another species, Dalbergia brownei (Brown's Indian rosewood) also grows in the region. Its wood is said to be similar to that of D. stevensonii. However, the small dimensions do not render it suitable for commercial expoitation. Further trade and local names: nogaed, hagaedwood (US); Honduras Palisander (DE); Palissandre du Honduras (FR); Palisandro de Honduras (ES); grenadillo rojo (GT); rosul (BZ). Code according to DIN EN 13556: DLST.
CITES(EU) status of protection. Listed in Annex II(B).
Similar timbers. The woods of Dalbergia spruceana (Amazonas rosewood) and D. stevensonii (Honduras rosewood) are easily mistaken one for the other based on macroscopic structural features. Only the combustion behaviour (burning splinter test) serves for a safe differentiation: a splinter of D. spruceana burns to charcoal, that of D. stevensonii to white ash.
Geographic distribution. Mexico and Central America. Belize, Guatemala, Mexico.
Growth rings, colour, grain, etc. Growth ring boundaries indistinct or absent. Heartwood basically brown, purple (quite variable, light pinkish brown to dark purple brown); with streaks. Sapwood distinct from heartwood colour. Odour indistinct or absent (only the purple variant has a weak, sweetish odor). Wood heavy and hard (0.90–1.20 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 (few). Vessels of rather different size and unevenly distributed over the cross section. Vessels small to large (extremely variable, from 65 to 360 µm); very few to few (2–4–10). Tyloses absent. Other deposits in heartwood vessels (pores) present.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma present; banded, or not banded. Parenchyma bands not (only) marginal; narrow. Other macroscopically visible types of axial parenchyma: diffuse-in-aggregates (many shorter irregular bandlets), vasicentric, aliform lozenge type (only weakly developed).
Rays. Rays narrow. Large rays commonly less than 1 mm high.
Storied structure. Storied structure present. Tiers regular (horizontal or slightly inclined); 5–6 per axial millimetre.
Physical and chemical tests. Heartwood not fluorescent. Water extract fluorescent (pale blue green); colour shade of water extract colourless to brown (almost colorless). Heartwood extractives not leachable by water. Ethanol extract fluorescent (pinkish yellow); colour shade of ethanol extract colourless to brown, or purple. The above observations relate to the purplish variant. The pink brown quality shows similar reactions though much weaker, the color of the ethanol extract is light orange brown. Froth test weakly positive. Splinter burns to full ash; colour of ash white to grey, or bright white.
Additional information. • Transverse section + wood surface. Transverse section ca. 10x. Wood surface (different colours), natural size. • Variable heartwood colour. heartwood color of Honduras rosewood very variable - keyboard (sound bars) of a xylophone. • Comparison Dalbergia stevensonii vs Platymiscium spp.. The timbers of Dalbergia stevensonii and some Platymiscium species are very similar in external appearance. Macroscopically, however, the two timbers are quite distinct as Platymiscium spp. has a well developed aliform axial parenchyma. Dalbergia stevensonii (Honduras rosewood). Platymiscium spp. (Granadillo).
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’.
