Peltogyne

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Peltogyne
Peltogyne paniculata Taub78b.png
Illustration of Peltogyne paniculata flowers
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Detarioideae
Tribe: Detarieae
Genus: Peltogyne
Vogel
Species

See text

Synonyms [1]
  • OrectospermumSchott

Peltogyne, commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central and South America; from Guerrero, Mexico, through Central America, and as far as south-eastern Brazil. [2]

Contents

They are medium-sized to large trees growing to 30–50 m (100–160 ft) tall, with trunk diameters of up to 1.5 m (5 ft). The leaves are alternate, divided into a symmetrical pair of large leaflets 5–10 cm (2–4 in) long and 2–4 cm (1–2 in) broad. The flowers are small, with five white petals, produced in panicles. The fruit is a pod containing a single seed. The timber is desirable, but difficult to work.

Distribution

The species of the genus range from southeastern Brazil through northern South America, Panama, Costa Rica, and Trinidad, with the majority of species in the Amazon Basin. P. mexicana is a geographic outlier, native to the Mexican state of Guerrero. [2] Overharvesting has caused several species to become endangered in areas where they were once abundant. [3]

Wood

The trees are prized for their beautiful heartwood which, when cut, quickly turns from a light brown to a rich purple color. Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light darkens the wood to a brown color with a slight hue of the original purple. [4] This effect can be minimized with a finish containing a UV inhibitor. The dry timber is very hard, stiff, and dense with a specific gravity of 0.86 (860 kg/m3 or 54 lb/cu ft). Purpleheart is correspondingly difficult to work with. [5] It is very durable and water-resistant.

Uses and hazards

Purpleheart is prized for use in fine inlay work especially on musical instruments, guitar fret boards (although rarely), woodturning, cabinetry, flooring, and furniture.

Purpleheart presents a number of challenges in the woodshop. Its hard-to-detect interlocking grain makes hand-planing, chiseling and working with carving tools a challenge. However, woodturners can note that with sharp tools, it turns clean, and sands well.

Exposure to the dust generated by cutting and sanding purpleheart can cause skin, eye, and respiratory irritation and nausea, possibly because of the presence of dalbergione (neoflavonoid) compounds in the wood. This also makes purpleheart wood unsuitable to most people for use in jewelry. [6] Purpleheart is also a fairly expensive wood, which is why it is usually used in smaller-scale projects. [7]

Species

The following list of species is according to Plants of the World Online. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mimosoideae</span> Subfamily of legumes

The Mimosoideae are a traditional subfamily of trees, herbs, lianas, and shrubs in the pea family (Fabaceae) that mostly grow in tropical and subtropical climates. They are typically characterized by having radially symmetric flowers, with petals that are twice divided (valvate) in bud and with numerous showy, prominent stamens.

<i>Dalbergia</i> Genus of legumes

Dalbergia is a large genus of small to medium-size trees, shrubs and lianas in the pea family, Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic Dalbergia clade : the Dalbergieae. The genus has a wide distribution, native to the tropical regions of Central and South America, Africa, Madagascar and southern Asia.

<i>Pouteria</i> Genus of trees

Pouteria is a genus of flowering trees in the gutta-percha family, Sapotaceae. The genus is widespread throughout the tropical Americas, with outlier species in Cameroon and Malesia. It includes the canistel, the mamey sapote, and the lucuma. Commonly, this genus is known as pouteria trees, or in some cases, eggfruits.

<i>Hymenaea</i> Genus of legumes

Hymenaea is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. Of the fourteen living species in the genus, all but one are native to the tropics of the Americas, with one additional species on the east coast of Africa. Some authors place the African species in a separate monotypic genus, Trachylobium. In the Neotropics, Hymenaea is distributed through the Caribbean islands, and from southern Mexico to Brazil. Linnaeus named the genus in 1753 in Species Plantarum for Hymenaios, the Greek god of marriage ceremonies. The name is a reference to the paired leaflets.

<i>Senna</i> (plant) Genus of flowering leguminous plants

Senna, the sennas, is a large genus of flowering plants in the legume family. This diverse genus is native throughout the tropics, with a small number of species in temperate regions. The number of species is estimated to be from about 260 to 350. The type species for the genus is Senna alexandrina. About 50 species of Senna are known in cultivation.

<i>Brosimum</i> Genus of flowering plants

Brosimum is a genus of plants in the family Moraceae, native to tropical regions of the Americas.

<i>Ulmus mexicana</i> Species of tree

Ulmus mexicana, the Mexican elm, is a large tree endemic to Mexico and Central America. It is most commonly found in cloud forest and the higher elevations of tropical rain forest with precipitation levels of 2–4 m (79–157 in) per year, ranging from San Luis Potosi south to Chiapas in Mexico, and from Guatemala to Panama beyond. The tree was first described botanically in 1873.

<i>Piptadenia</i> Genus of legumes

Piptadenia is a genus of tropical shrubs and trees of the family Fabaceae. It includes 28 species native to the tropical Americas, ranging from central Mexico to southern Brazil and northwestern Argentina.

<i>Marina</i> (plant) Genus of legumes

Marina is a genus in the legume family, Fabaceae. It includes 40 species native to southern North America, ranging from California and New Mexico through Mexico and Central America to Costa Rica. They are known as the false prairie clovers. Unlike the related prairie clovers, which bear two ovules per fruit, false prairie clovers bear only one ovule per fruit.

<i>Copaifera</i> Genus of legumes

Copaifera is a genus of tropical plants in the legume family Fabaceae. It includes 40 species native to the tropical Americas, west and central tropical Africa, and Borneo.

Lecointea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It contains seven species native to the tropical Americas.

<i>Macrolobium</i> Genus of legumes

Macrolobium is a legume genus in the subfamily Detarioideae. It is a tropical genus with about 80 species. Half occur in Brazil, where they are common in the floodplains of the Amazonian Basin. Members of the genus are used as ornamentals and for their wood.

<i>Ormosia</i> Genus of legumes

Ormosia is a genus of legumes. 131 living species, mostly trees or large shrubs, are native to the tropical Americas, from southwestern Mexico to Bolivia and southern Brazil, to southern, southeastern, and eastern Asia, and to New Guinea and Queensland. Most are tropical, while some extend into temperate temperate regions of China. A few species are threatened by habitat destruction, while the Hainan ormosia is probably extinct already.

<i>Pithecellobium</i> Genus of legumes

Pithecellobium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It includes approximately 23 species from the tropical Americas, ranging from Mexico to Peru and northern Brazil, including the Caribbean Islands and Florida.

<i>Swartzia</i> Genus of legumes

Swartzia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It was named in honor of Swedish botanist Olof Swartz and contains about 200 species. Swartzia is restricted in its geographical distribution to the New World Tropics, where it occurs primarily in lowland rainforests, but also in savannas, pre-montane forests, and tropical dry forests. While it can be found throughout the wet lowlands from Mexico and the Caribbean islands to southern Brazil and Bolivia, Swartzia is most abundant and species-rich in Amazonia, where 10–20 species may co-occur at a single site. The species of Swartzia are mostly trees, ranging from small understory treelets to large canopy emergents. Some species, especially in savannas, are mult-stemmed shrubs.

<i>Zygia</i> Genus of legumes

Zygia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It includes 60 species of tres and shrubs native to the tropical Americas, from Southern Mexico and Cuba to northern Argentina. Typical habitats are tropical forest and coastal zones, generally below 900 meters elevation with a few species extending up to 2800 meters. It belongs to the mimosoid clade of the subfamily Caesalpinioideae.

<i>Enterolobium</i> Genus of legumes

Enterolobium is a genus of 12 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, native to tropical and warm-temperate regions of the Americas. They are medium-sized to large trees.

<i>Eperua</i> Genus of legumes

Eperua is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It belongs to subfamily Detarioideae. It includes 16 species native to northern South America, in Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, and northern Brazil. They live in the jungles, often along rivers or streams. The leaves are compound pinnate, with smooth margins, and the fruits are long pods. The wood of E. falcata is called wallaba and is often used in construction.

Peltogyne purpurea, commonly known as nazareno, or purpleheart, is a species of Peltogyne tree native to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and Panama, and also the Atlantic coast of Colombia.

<i>Peltogyne mexicana</i> Species of legume

Peltogyne mexicana is a species of tree that belongs to the family Fabaceae. Members of the genus Peltogyne are commonly known in different regions as purpleheart, morao, nazareno, violeta, pau roxo, or palo morado. The genus Peltogyne is neotropical and is made up of 23 species. Peltogyne mexicana occurs in Guerrero, Mexico, and is one of the northernmost species in the genus.

References

  1. R. C. Barneby (1983). "(711)-(712) Proposals to conserve Plathymenia against Echyrospermum and Peltogyne against Orectospermum (Leguminosae)". Taxon . 32 (3): 488–490. doi:10.2307/1221525. JSTOR   1221525.
  2. 1 2 Sotuyo Vázquez, Jeny Solange (2014). "El palo morado (Peltogyne mexicana), una leguminosa maderable con futuro incierto y parientes lejanos". Revista Digital Universitaria (in Spanish). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. 15 (4). ISSN   1607-6079.
  3. "Purpleheart - Peltogyne - Madera Sudamerica -Consorcio forestal". Maderasdesudamerica.com.
  4. "PURPLEHEART-PELTOGYNE".
  5. Garnet Hall (February 2006). The Art of Intarsia: Projects & Patterns. Tamos Books, Incorporated. pp. 16–. ISBN   978-1-895569-75-9.
  6. Peltogyne in BoDD – Botanical Dermatology Database
  7. Atrops, J.L. (1970). Strength Properties of Trinidadian Timbers. University of the West Indies. OCLC   763016897.
  8. Peltogyne in POWO; last accessed 10 April 2021