African Mahogany

Khaya ivorensis A. Chevalier

Standard trade name: African mahogany, which is also applied to K. Anthotheca and K. grandifolia

A dominant tree, up to 200 ft high and 15 ft in girth above the large buttresses, with long clear bole up to 90 ft. It is a rain-forest tree found in low-lying grounds in West Africa.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.—The timber is medium hard and has a medium weight varying between 32 and 45 lb/ft3. The average weight is about 35 lb/ft3 seasoned. The green weight is about 44 lb/ft3. The sapwood is about 2 in wide and the color is yellowish brown. The timber has a similar, if not the same, general description as K. grandifolia and the other African mahogany species.

SEASONING.—All the species of African mahogany season fairly rapidly and well with little degrade.

DURABILITY.—Logs are susceptible to attack by pin-hole borers and powder-post beetles. Moderately resistant. It is extremely resistant to preservative treatment.

WORKING QUALITIES.—The timber works fairly easily with both hand and machine tools. Most of the working qualities of K. grandifolia also apply to this timber.

USES.—It is very useful for furniture and interior decoration, and forms a good quality joinery wood suitable for ships’ cabins and railway coaches. It is also used for boat planking and for the manufacture of veneer and plywood.

XYLEM ANATOMY.—Growth rings absent. Wood diffuse-porous. Vessels: solitary but with a few radial multiples of 2 or 3 small pores; circular in outline, rarely angular; average pore diameter 100μm, range 80μm–130μm; average vessel element length 511μm, range 388μm–588μm; perforation plates exclusively simple; vessel element end wall inclination almost transverse; intervascular pitting alternate. Imperforate tracheary elements: septate fibers; average length 1448μm, range 1250μm–1650μm. Fibers with simple pits on tangential walls. Vascular rays: heterogeneous, mainly multiseriate, generally 5 cells wide, 5 to 18 cells high.

Khaya ivorensis, also called African mahogany or Lagos mahogany, is a tall forest tree with a buttressed trunk in the family Meliaceae. It is found in Angola, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria where it grows primarily in lowland tropical rainforests. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Khaya ivorensis is a species in the African mahogany family. Other common names are Gold Coast mahogany, Ivory Coast mahogany, Nigerian mahogany. It grows to be about 40–50 m high. It has thick and reddish brown bark. It grows many white flowers at the end of its branches. Its woody fruit is slightly thinner than those of Khaya grandifoliola.