Swietenia macrophylla (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Swietenia macrophylla King

Protologue: Hook.f., Icon. pl. 16: t. 1550 (1886).

Synonyms

• Swietenia krukovii Gleason (1936),
• Swietenia belizensis Lundell (1941).

Vernacular names

• Big-, broad- or large-leaved mahogany, Honduras mahogany (En).

Distribution

Native to the mainland of tropical Central and South America from Mexico to Peru and Brazil but absent from the central Amazon. Planted throughout the tropics in reforestation projects and plantations, for instance in Java, Sarawak and especially the Philippines, and planted as a lawn tree in Peninsular Malaysia.

Uses

The timber is used as mahogany; the wood is generally less dense and of slightly lower quality than that of narrow-leaved mahogany.

Observations

• A medium-sized to large tree up to 40(-60) m tall, bole branchless for up to 18(-25) m with a diameter up to 150(-200) cm, buttresses broad and plank-like, up to 5 m high.
• Leaves with (2-)3-6(-8) pairs of leaflets of (8-)9-13(-18) cm × 3-4(-5.5) cm, on young trees sometimes larger.
• Inflorescence 10-18(-20) cm long.
• Flowers with ciliate sepals and petals.
• Capsule 10-15(-22) cm long; seed 7.5-12 cm long.

The density of the wood of plantation-grown trees is often somewhat less than that of trees from the forest in the natural area of distribution and weighs 485-840 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

13, 35, 89, 127, 144, 153, 175, 226, 233, 310, 367, 439, 461, 463, 498, 520, 653, 654, 665, 687, 764, 770, 810.

Main genus page

• Swietenia

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef (selection of species)