Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry)

Botanical name: Hymenaea courbaril. Grows in: South America, Mexico

Hardness/Janka: Janka Hardness: 2820

General Characteristics: Heartwood is salmon red to orange brown when fresh, becoming russet to reddish brown when seasoned; often marked with dark streaks.  Sapwood is usually wide; white, gray, or pinkish.  Texture is medium to rather coarse; grain mostly interlocked; golden luster; without distinctive odor or taste.

Working Properties: The wood is moderately difficult to saw and machine largely because of its high density, but except in planing it can be machined to a smooth surface.  The wood is somewhat difficult to plane because of the interlocked grain. It is easy to glue and finish satisfactorily; steam-bending properties comparable to white oak.

Durability: Laboratory evaluations rate the wood very resistant to brown-rot and white-rot fungi; actual field exposure trials also rate the wood as very durable. Heartwood is also rated very resistant to dry-wood termites; little resistance to marine borers.

Preservation: Heartwood is not treatable using open-tank or pressure-vacuum systems. Sapwood, however, is responsive.

Uses: Flooring, tool handles and other applications where good shock resistance is needed, steam-bent parts, flooring, turnery, furniture and cabinet work, railroad crossties tree-nails, gear cogs, wheel rims, and other specialty items.  Tree exudes a rosin-like gum known commercially as South American copal.  Seed pods contain an edible pulp.