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Dalbergia melanoxylon
Also called Mozambique Ebony, African Ebony, Senegal Ebony, Chinese Blackwood, Senaar Ebony, Sudan Ebony, Poyi
African blackwood is a small tree from seasonally dry parts of Africa, prized mainly as a timber source for instruments and fine furniture. It is rarely grown as an ornamental, and it is threatened in the wild by overharvesting and poor seed germination.
Dalbergia melanoxylon (African blackwood, grenadilla, or mpingo) is a flowering plant in the subfamily Faboideae of the family Fabaceae, native to seasonally dry regions of Africa from Senegal east to Eritrea, to southern regions of Tanzania to Mozambique and south to the north-eastern parts of South Africa. The tree is an important timber species in its native areas; it is used in the manufacture of musical instruments, sculptures vinyago in Swahili language and fine furniture. Populations and genomic resources for genetic biodiversity maintenance in parts of its native range are threatened by overharvesting due to poor or absent conservation planning and by the species' low germination rates.
African blackwood is a small tree, reaching 4–15 m tall, with grey bark and spiny shoots.
The dense, lustrous wood ranges in colour from reddish to pure black. It is generally cut into small billets or logs with its sharply demarcated bright yellow-white sapwood left on to assist in the slow drying so as to prevent cracks developing. Good quality "A" grade African blackwood commands high prices on the commercial timber market. The timber is used mainly because of its machinability, density, dimensional stability, and moisture repellence. Those properties are particularly valued when used in woodwind instruments, principally clarinets, oboes, transverse flutes, piccolos, recorders, Highland pipes, and Northumbrian pipes. The Deering Banjo Company uses blackwood ("grenadilla") to construct the tone ring in its John Hartford-model banjo because it weighs less than brass or bronze tone rings, and that the wood "plays in" (improves in tone) with use. Furniture makers from ancient Egypt on have valued this timber.
Hluhluwe climber · Thailand rosewood · Coinvine · Cocobolo · Hwangdan · Indian rosewood · Dalbergia maritima · Dalbergia miscolobium · Brazilian rosewood · Climbing Flat Bean · Fragrant Rosewood · Burmese Rosewood
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dalbergia melanoxylon by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
