Wood Species: Brazilian Cherry

Scientific Name: Hymenaea courbaril

Trade Name: Brazilian cherry

Family Name: Caesalpiniaceae

Common Names: Brazilian cherry, Jatoba, Courbaril, Cuapinol, Guapinol, locust, Algarrobo, Jutaby, Stinking toe, Azucar huayo, Jataí, Copal, Brazilian copal, Nazareno, Cayenne copal, Demarara copal, Gomme animee, Pois confiture, Guapinole, Loksi, South American locust

Regions of Distribution: South America, North America, Central America

Countries of Distribution: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia

Appearance

Color: A dark wood that often has dark streaks. Heartwood is red to orange-brown when its fresh, turns russet when it’s seasoned. Sapwood is between white and gray.

Grain: Primarily interlocked, its texture can be medium to fairly coarse

Variations within species and grades: Color varies moderately

Properties

Hardness/Janka: 2820, 119% harder than northern red oak

Dimensional stability: Average at 8.5, 1% more stable than Northern red oak. Allow it to acclimate to a new environment, installations show significant movement.

Origin: South America

Availability: Easily available, but taken from a region that’s in danger of being over forested due to high demand.

Average and maximum lifespan: Short

Workability

Sawing/Machining: The high density of the wood makes sawing hard, blades will need to be sharpened often. The interlocked grain makes planning difficult, use carbide tooling.

Sanding: Wood shows scratches easily, use each sanding to remove the scratches from the previous cut or sanding marks will be visible in the finish.

Nailing: Be cautious about adjusting the angle at which the wood is being nailed; the hardness of the wood makes such adjustments difficult. Adjust the air pressure if a pneumatic nailer.

Finishing: Satisfactory if the right products are used. Coating with oil-modified polyurethane may occasionally cause white spots or specks, as well as white end joints to appear. This may be avoided by buffing in a clear oil sealer or neutral stain, then buffing on satin polyurethane.

Common Uses:  Its bark exudes a gum sometimes used for medicinal purposes. Wood used for furniture, cabinetry, flooring, stair treads, parquet, architectural details, highly decorative veneers, joinery, turnery, tool handles, sporting equipment, hardwood pulp, firewood, charcoal, beams and railroad ties.

Detailed Description

Plant habit and lifestyle: Large leguminous (meaning nitrogen-fixing) canopy tree reaches 150 feet in the rainforest but averages 130 feet when farmed.

Stems: Cylindrical trunk up to 6 feet in diameter, branches puberulent, jointed and articulate.

Buds: None

Leaves: Color is green. Texture is dense and coarse. Leaves are alternate and bifoliolate, compound. Leaflets are asymmetric and bifoliolate. Wider on the outside; it looks like one large leaf has been torn down the middle. Petiole is swollen at the base. Petioles are a third of an inch to three quarters of an inch long. Leaflets are 1.5 to 4 inches long by three-quarters to 2 inches wide.

Flowers: White with blue or purple tinge. Five round petals about 7 millimeters long Night blooming. One inch and a half in width. Bracts caducous; pedicels thick. 10 stamens.  Stigma held above the lower anthers and at some distance from the divergent longer set. Blooming during the spring and summer, the trees will only flower when they are at full growth and receive full sun.

Fruits: Large thick reddish-brown pods contain a strong smelling but edible pulp and large seeds. Pods are 2 to 4 inches long by three quarters to an inch and third wide. Thick (1 inch) outer shells will not open by themselves. The pods mature 9 months after flowering and fall over a period of three months.

Habitat: Can stand a wide range of rainforest habitats but grows best where annual rainfall is between 6 and 7 feet per year. That rain can be spread out or all at once in a monsoon. Likes deep, fertile and moist but well drained soil. Will grow on all textures but is best suited to sandy soil. This tree can grow from sea levels to elevations of 3000 feet. It requires partial shade to grow straight but is intolerant of shade once it’s reach full maturity.

Special Diagnostic Characteristics: Not a true cherry wood, has no discernable scent or taste. The heartwood is rated as only moderately resistance to attack by fungi and marine borers.