Peltogyne


Peltogyne, commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names 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.
They are medium-sized to large trees growing to tall, with trunk diameters of up to. The leaves are alternate, divided into a symmetrical pair of large leaflets long and 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. Overharvesting has caused several species to become endangered in areas where they were once abundant.

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 light darkens the wood to a brown color with a slight hue of the original purple. 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. Purpleheart is correspondingly difficult to work with. It is very durable and water-resistant.
Due to its stiffness, the wood is used as a Tonewood in instruments, especially guitar fretboards and reinforcing strips in the neck of guitars and basses. Some Neck-Through-Body guitars are reinforced with Purpleheart to aid structural and tuning stability as well as for its resonant tonal properties.

Uses and hazards

Purpleheart is prized for use in fine inlay work especially on musical instruments, guitar fret boards, 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 compounds in the wood. This also makes purpleheart wood unsuitable to most people for use in jewelry. Purpleheart is also a fairly expensive wood, which is why it is usually used in smaller-scale projects.

Species

The following list of species is according to Plants of the World Online.
  • Peltogyne altissima Ducke
  • Peltogyne angustiflora Ducke
  • Peltogyne campestris Ducke
  • Peltogyne catingae Ducke
  • Peltogyne chrysopis Barneby
  • Peltogyne crenulata Afr.Fern.
  • Peltogyne discolor Vogel
  • Peltogyne excelsa Ducke
  • Peltogyne floribunda Pittier
  • Peltogyne gracilipes Ducke
  • Peltogyne heterophylla M.F.Silva
  • Peltogyne lecointei Ducke
  • Peltogyne maranhensis Ducke
  • Peltogyne mattosiana Rizzini
  • Peltogyne mexicana Martinez
  • Peltogyne paniculata Benth.
  • Peltogyne paradoxa Ducke
  • Peltogyne parvifolia Benth.
  • Peltogyne pauciflora Benth.
  • Peltogyne prancei M.F.Silva
  • Peltogyne purpurea Pittier
  • Peltogyne recifensis Ducke
  • Peltogyne subsessilis W.A.Rodrigues
  • Peltogyne venosa Benth.