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Aucoumea klaineana
3-655.41.13English: Gaboon mahogany; Okoumé.
Region: west tropical Africa, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo.
Habitat: closed forest; cultivations; clearings; open ground; road sides; edges of savannahs; elevations from sea level to around 600 metres; moist tropics; sunny position; wide range of acid soils, ferralitic arenosols, ferralitic, podzoluvisols, infertile sandy soils; prefers fertile, deep sandyclayloams.
Culture: classified vulnerable.
Content: terpenoids are present in the bark resin, α-terpineol, β-phellandrene, tetracyclic and pentacyclic triterpenes.
Use: most important timber tree in Gabon; gum resin, smells of turpentine in torches and lamps, for incense, skin care products, nail polish; wood for plywood; wood for decorative veneers, plywood, panelling, cabinet making, blockboard, particle board, light interior construction, carpentry, furniture, sports equipment, cigar boxes, packing cases, canoes; wood for fuel.BotanyEvergreen, dioecious tree; 35 to 40 to 60 metres tall; fast growing.
Roots: shallow-rooted, with virtually no taproot.
Stem: cylindrical; distorted, bent; 2 metres in diameter; buttresses up to 3 metres high; bark scaly, shed in thick, elongate plates; unbranched for up to 21 metres; heartwood is salmon pink to pale pinkish brown or reddish brown, darkening upon exposure to light to a mahogany-like colour; demarcated from the white to pale grey sapwood; grain slightly interlocked; texture medium to moderately fine; quarter-sawn surfaces with a striped or mottled figure; growth rings distinct due to alternating paler and darker layers; lightweight; soft; easy decay, susceptible to termites, marine borers, fungal attack; easy to work with both hand- and machine tools; worked surfaces tend to be woolly; contains up to 0.3% silica and sawing requires tungsten-carbide-tipped cutters as saw teeth blunt rather quickly; responds well to sanding, can be nailed without pre-boring, and glues and stains well; can be polished to a lustrous surface.
Flowers: 5 merous; gynoecium 5 carpels; Stamens 10, filaments densely pubescent.
Fruit: pseudocapsule, pyrenes 5, with wings perpendicular to radius.
Region: west tropical Africa, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo.
Habitat: closed forest; cultivations; clearings; open ground; road sides; edges of savannahs; elevations from sea level to around 600 metres; moist tropics; sunny position; wide range of acid soils, ferralitic arenosols, ferralitic, podzoluvisols, infertile sandy soils; prefers fertile, deep sandyclayloams.
Culture: classified vulnerable.
Content: terpenoids are present in the bark resin, α-terpineol, β-phellandrene, tetracyclic and pentacyclic triterpenes.
Use: most important timber tree in Gabon; gum resin, smells of turpentine in torches and lamps, for incense, skin care products, nail polish; wood for plywood; wood for decorative veneers, plywood, panelling, cabinet making, blockboard, particle board, light interior construction, carpentry, furniture, sports equipment, cigar boxes, packing cases, canoes; wood for fuel.BotanyEvergreen, dioecious tree; 35 to 40 to 60 metres tall; fast growing.
Roots: shallow-rooted, with virtually no taproot.
Stem: cylindrical; distorted, bent; 2 metres in diameter; buttresses up to 3 metres high; bark scaly, shed in thick, elongate plates; unbranched for up to 21 metres; heartwood is salmon pink to pale pinkish brown or reddish brown, darkening upon exposure to light to a mahogany-like colour; demarcated from the white to pale grey sapwood; grain slightly interlocked; texture medium to moderately fine; quarter-sawn surfaces with a striped or mottled figure; growth rings distinct due to alternating paler and darker layers; lightweight; soft; easy decay, susceptible to termites, marine borers, fungal attack; easy to work with both hand- and machine tools; worked surfaces tend to be woolly; contains up to 0.3% silica and sawing requires tungsten-carbide-tipped cutters as saw teeth blunt rather quickly; responds well to sanding, can be nailed without pre-boring, and glues and stains well; can be polished to a lustrous surface.
Flowers: 5 merous; gynoecium 5 carpels; Stamens 10, filaments densely pubescent.
Fruit: pseudocapsule, pyrenes 5, with wings perpendicular to radius.