Grenadilla

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Grenadilla
Dalbergia melanoxylon (tree) .jpg

Grenadilla ( Dalbergia melanoxylon )

Systematics
Order : Fabales (Fabales)
Family : Legumes (Fabaceae)
Subfamily : Butterflies (Faboideae)
Tribe : Dalbergieae
Genre : Dalbergia ( Dalbergia )
Type : Grenadilla
Scientific name
Dalbergia melanoxylon
Guill. & Perr.
Grenadilla wood

Dalbergia melanoxylon is a plant from the genus of dalbergia ( Dalbergia ) in the subfamily of Schmetterlingsblütler (Faboideae). Grenadilla or African grenadilla and zebra wood , African black wood , English; african blackwood , african ironwood also african ebony ; Portuguese; pau-preto , is the trade name of the very heavy wood , which is one of the iron woods .

It is to be distinguished from both the as granadillo designated Palisanderhölzern ( Dalbergia granadillo , Dalbergia retusa and Dalbergia tucurensis ), which in Central America occur, or the granadillo of different Platymiscium (TYPES as yucatanum Platymiscium , Platymiscium pinnatum ) from Central and South America, as well as from ebony ( Diospyros spp .; English ebony ), as well as from American grenadilla , grenadillo (a) ( Brya ebenus , Brya microphylla ) and from the wood also known as grenadilla (o) from Inga vera and Buchenavia tetraphylla ; this can easily lead to confusion. As a representative of the Dalbergia genus, it is closely related to rose and rosewood. Dalbergia melanoxylon can be clearly identified under the microscope.

Other species that are sometimes referred to as Gre (a) nadillo are Crinodendron tucumanum , Pithecellobium pithecolobioides , Dalbergia glomerata , Couroupita guianensis , Caesalpinia granadillo , Ocotea spathulata , Eugenia ligustrina and Hypericum canariense .

description

Dalbergia melanoxylon grows as a richly branched, thorny shrub or small tree up to a height of 4.5 to 7.5 meters, or 6 to 9 meters from another source or sometimes up to about 15 meters high. The mature trees are almost all hollow, so that various animal species find shelter there. The trunk is often fluted and gnarled.

The spirally arranged and stalked leaves are unpaired pinnate and up to 20 centimeters long. The short-stalked, leathery and mostly rounded to slightly indented leaflets with a whole edge are elliptical to obovate and up to about 5.5 centimeters long. The stipules are sloping.

Terminal or axillary, multi-flowered, slightly hairy panicles are formed. The hermaphrodite and almost sessile butterfly flowers with a small calyx are white and fragrant.

It will not open until 7 centimeters long, gray-brown, flat and barren legumes, but often formed with up to four with only one or two kidney-shaped and reddish-brown, strongly flattened seeds. The seeds are about 8–9 millimeters long and only 0.5 to 0.7 millimeters thick.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 20.

Grenadilla wood is a deep dark brown to almost black hardwood of the rosewood family with fine black and purple markings. With a density of 1400 kg / m 3 and an average kiln density of 1200 kg / m 3 (or 1270 kg / m 3 according to another source), grenadilla is one of the heaviest woods of all. The dark heartwood is surrounded by a bright yellow, quite thin layer of sapwood, the commonly used part of the tree is the heartwood. It has a very fine and homogeneous structure and feels smooth and a little oily to the touch.

Distribution and regional names

Dalbergia melanoxylon occurs in dry savannah areas in southern East Africa ( Ethiopia , Sudan , Kenya to Zimbabwe ) and in West Africa ( Senegal to Nigeria and Chad ) and in Central Africa , to Botswana and Namibia , but is in many parts as threatened or exploited. The main distribution is in Mozambique , where it is called Mozambique ebony , and Tanzania , where it is known as Mpingo . The species was naturalized in India and Australia.

use

Grenadilla wood is mainly imported from Mozambique and Tanzania and was previously referred to in trade as Senegal ebony or Mozambique ebony . It does not belong to the biological ebony family . However, the word "ebony" (English "ebony", French "ébène") and the idea of ​​the so-called deep black wood comes from the Bible (Hebr. הָבְנִים - håvnîm, from Egyptian hbny), which actually means grenadilla wood. It was brought to Europe for the first time by Portuguese traders at the beginning of the 16th century and has since established a permanent place in woodwind instrument making.

The international demand is essentially divided into the following three areas:

  • Worldwide demand for musical instruments;
  • Demand from China for furniture manufacturing;
  • International demand for African wood carving (mostly in the context of tourism).

Because of the high hardness, saws with teeth made of hard metal are used for processing. Due to its high density, it is impermeable to air and due to its hardness, precise and sharp edges can be turned into the wood. It is mainly used in woodwind instrument making mainly for clarinets , oboes and flutes , but also for recorders and some bagpipes such as the Great Highland Bagpipes and Galician bagpipes . Parts of organ keyboards are also made from grenadilla. It is now also used in the construction of acoustic guitars (e.g. George Lowden). However, musical instruments only make up a very small proportion of the global consumption of grenadilla wood. Only 0.04% of the grenadilla wood that Mozambique exports worldwide is said to be used for the construction of musical instruments. Specifically, there are only 255 of around 720,000 cubic meters annually.

Due to its slow growth and the currently increasing consumption, there are already the first bottlenecks in the supply of grenadilla wood. Since January 2nd, 2017, Dalbergia melanoxylon , like all Dalbergia, has been listed in Appendix II of the Washington Convention on CITES. The trade in grenadilla wood and products made from it has been subject to strict controls ever since. The trade in (finished) musical instruments from most Dalbergia species (including grenadilla) was relaxed again in August 2019 in an exception regulation.

For these reasons, some woodwind instrument makers have been experimenting with alternative woods to make their instruments for some time. For clarinets z. B. Mopane could play an increasing role.

In addition to using wood, the species also plays a role as fodder - the leaves and fruits are particularly popular with goats.

See also

literature

  • Anthony B. Cunningham: Trady study of selected east African timber production species. BfN scripts 445, Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Bonn 2016, ISBN 978-3-89624-182-5 .
  • Andrew Duncan, Gwen Rigby: The Hobby Carpenter - Woodworking Technique. German edition in cooperation with the master school Ebern for the carpentry trade, Orbis Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-572-00763-1 .
  • William Lincoln et al .: The Enyclopedia of Wood. Facts On File, Limited, Oxford 1989, ISBN 0-8160-2159-7 .

Web links

Commons : Grenadilla ( Dalbergia melanoxylon )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grandillo at Useful Tropical Plants, accessed November 17, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b M. M. Grandtner: Elsevier's Dictionary of Trees. Volume 1: North America , Elsevier, 2005, ISBN 0-444-51784-7 , pp. 120, 305.
  3. ↑ Rodal's American Woodworker. No. Jan. 30-Feb. 1993, p. 66.
  4. ^ A. Cunningham, p. 34.
  5. ↑ a b c d W. Lincoln, p. 88.
  6. ↑ a b A. Cunningham, p. 40.
  7. ^ Meyer's Large Conversational Lexicon. Volume 8, Leipzig 1907, p. 276 .: Grenadillholz bei Zeno.org .
  8. ^ Carlos M. Domínguez Cristóbal: Panorama Histórico Forestal de Puerto Rico. Univ. de Puerto Rico, 2000, ISBN 0-8477-0395-9 , p. 172.
  9. ↑ MM Grandtner, Julien Chevrette: Dictionary of Trees. Volume 2: South America , pp. 88, 175.
  10. ↑ Granadillo at IUCN Red List.
  11. ↑ Alain H. Liogier, Luis F. Martorell: Flora of Puerto Rico and Adjacent Islands. Second Edition, Univ. de Puerto Rico, 2000, ISBN 0-8477-0369-X , pp. 62, 137, 140.
  12. ^ Evaluación Nacional Forestal en Honduras. FAO, 2006, p. 45.
  13. ↑ a b African Blackwood on wood-database.com, accessed March 7, 2017.
  14. ↑ A. Cunningham, p. 38.
  15. ↑ M. Sacandé, H. Vautier, M. Sanon, L. Schmidt: Dalbergia melanoxylon Guill. & Perr. In: Seed Leaflet. 135, 2007, online (PDF), at Københavns Universitet, accessed on November 16, 2018.
  16. ↑ Dalbergia melanoxylon at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
  17. ^ A. Cunningham, p. 36.
  18. ^ A. Duncan, G. Rigby, p. 201.
  19. ↑ a b c James Sullivan: New CITES Regulations: A Clarinetist's Primer. International Clarinet Association, accessed October 3, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Federal Agency for Nature Conservation: Resolutions of the 17th CITES Conference of the Parties (September / October 2016) . See web link.
  21. ^ SOMM - Society of Music Merchants eV: Voting result of the CITES Conference of the Parties: Exceptions for musical instruments decided. Retrieved September 4, 2019 .