Purpleheart Peltogyne porphyrocardia
FAMILY: Sweet pea (Leguminoseae) SOURCE: Central and South America
Purpleheart leaves consist of two leaflets each; the fruit-pod is one-seeded
The aptly named purpleheart cannot be mistaken for any other timber, for its whole surface is a bright, clear, purple colour. This is due to a remarkable natural pigment, found only in the heartwood; the sapwood is whitish, with purple streaks, and remains so. When the heartwood is first exposed by cutting, it is horn- coloured. Exposure to the air causes it to turn, within a few days, bright purple on the surface. But this colour is only about a twentieth of an inch deep, and further cutting will expose pale surfaces, which become purple in their turn. Long exposure to sun and rain renders the surface black, but it is constant enough when used indoors.
Purpleheart is remarkably heavy, strong and tough, weighing 54lb to the cubic foot. It grows in Central American rain forests and shows no marked features of annual rings, rays, pores or grain. Figured wood is rare and correspondingly valuable. Local uses for material not found good enough for export include wheel spokes, house-framing and heavy constructional jobs. In America and Europe small quantities of purpleheart are used for fine turning and cabinet-work, but the main demand is for veneers and inlays.
Purpleheart is also known as ‘amaranth’ or ‘purplewood’. A Portuguese name common in Brazil is ‘pau roxo’, while in Panama it bears the Spanish names of ‘palo nazareno’ and ‘palo morado’. An expressive Indian name used in Brazil is ‘coataquicana’, meaning ‘monkey’s hammock’, because of its long, slender, flowering branchlets. In Guyana it is called ‘sakavalli’ or ‘kooroobooelli’.
Purpleheart is cut from several species of tall trees that belong to the genus Peltogyne, the commonest being P. porpbJlrocardia. They grow along riverbanks and lakeshores in Central and South America, from Panama to Venezuela, Trinidad, Surinam, Guyana and northern Brazil. Some achieve heights of 125 feet and girths of 12 feet, with tall boles, clear of branches, 40 feet long. The leaves are leathery in texture, and each consists of only one pair of pointed, oval leaflets – a rare arrangement. The small white blossoms, borne in clusters, are followed by one-seeded fruit-pods. The bark is smooth and grey, and the trunk is round, without buttresses.
