For a particularly eye-catching and unique-looking wood, look no further than the forests of the African continent.
From the glass-like lustre of pink ivory to the jet-black streaks of wenge, here are a few of our favourite tropical timbers.
Zebrano (zebrawood)
- Origins: West Africa
- Common uses: Furniture, veneers, specialty items
- Appearance: Light brown-to-cream with dark brown to black streaks
- Scientific name: Microberlinia brazzavillensis
Zebrano (or zebrawood) is one of the most popular, instantly-recognisable African hardwoods.
So-called due to its bold striped grain pattern, zebrano's mixture of creams, browns and blacks make a fantastic decorative statement for furniture trims, veneers, wall panelling and guitars. It’s incredibly hard wearing.
Its streaks can be straight or erratic, making each piece highly unique.
Many other types of wood try to use the name zebrawood, so unless you choose carefully and discerningly, you’ll only be getting a pale imitation. Microberlinia brazzavillensis trees grows tall and straight up to 50 metres and are distributed throughout lowland forests of Congo, Cameroon and Gabon.
In days past, the wood was very popular for use as car dashboards.
Wenge
- Origins: Central and western Africa
- Common uses: Flooring, furniture, panelling, as a veneer
- Appearance: Dark brown with black streaks
- Pronunciation: when-gay
- Scientific name: Millettia laurentii
Wenge has a striking medium-to-dark brown tone, with black streaks and a straight grain. It’s a popular for luxury furniture making and specialist joinery.
As darker woods gain traction amongst the architecturally-minded, wenge is attracting more attention. It’s a heavy, hard timber that can work well for flooring. It’s also naturally resistant to termite attack.
Authentic wenge comes from the millettia laurentii, a legume tree native to Zaire, Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Such is the popularity and uniqueness of this species, ‘wenge’ is even used as a colour in its own right.
If you're interested in joining the dark side with this stunning species, don't miss our full wenge guide!
Sapele
- Origins: West Africa tropical rainforests
- Common uses: Flooring, furniture, panelling, veneer
- Appearance: Reddish-brown
- Pronunciation: suh-pee-lee
- Scientific name: Entandrophragma cylindricum
Sapele is cherished for its visual likeness to mahogany, and is often used as a substitute. In fact, it’s often referred to as ‘sapele mahogany’.
This species tends to darkenswith age. The interlocking grain pattern gives the timber complexity, with many pieces showing unique figuring.
With exceptional durability, strength and rot resistance, sapele is popular for furniture, veneers, musical instruments, panelling and even boatbuilding.
Entandrophragma cylindricum is distributed widely across Africa. It originated in the Ivory Coast, but can now be found as east as Tanzania.
Sapele gets its name from the Nigerian city of Sapele, where there is an abundance of the tree.
Be sure to take a look at our in-depth guide to sapele.
Iroko
- Origins: Central Africa
- Common uses: Exterior decking, flooring, furniture
- Appearance: Golden yellowish-brown
- Pronunciation: i-row-kow
- Scientific name: Milicia excelsa
Also known as ‘African teak’, iroko is an extraordinarily durable, dense hardwood.
With exotic golden yellow-to-brown hues and excellent natural outdoor durability and performance, it’s clear why this wood has another well-earned moniker: the ‘Rolls-Royce of decking’.
Externally, it can also be used for fencing and is similarly at home indoors for flooring and furniture making.
Iroko comes from the milicia excelsa, distributed widely across central tropical Africa, from Mozambique in the east through to Guinea in the west.
It is a very slow-growing tree that can live for up to 500 years. It produces extremely strong, dense and scratch resistant timber – ideal for applications where hard-wearing wood is required.
Pink ivory
- Origins: Southern Africa
- Common uses: Luxury carvings, jewelry, knife handles, billiard cues, turned bowls, and fine inlays
- Appearance: Ranging from pale shell pink to a vibrant, neon "hot" pink
- Scientific name: Berchemia zeyheri
Hailing from the arid regions of South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, pink ivory is often cited as one of the rarest and most exotic woods on the planet.
Historically considered the royal wood of the Zulu people, it remains a highly coveted material for its striking, candy-like colour and glass-smooth finish.
Utile
- Origins: West and central Africa
- Common uses: Flooring, furniture, veneers
- Appearance: Reddish-brown with purple hues
- Pronunciation: you-teel (sometimes ‘you-teel-eh’)
- Scientific name: Entandrophragma utile
Another of the African redwoods, like sapele utile is revered for its likeness to mahogany. Indeed, the species shares a number of aesthetic and technical similarities – reddish-brown with purple hues, an alluring interlocking grain pattern and exceptional strength.
Entandrophragma utile is found across tropical Africa, from Uganda in the east to Sierra Leone in the west and as far south as Angola. It is able to reach up to 60 metres in height.
Padauk
- Origins: Central and west Africa
- Common uses: Furniture, cabinetry, flooring, veneers, speciality items
- Appearance: Reddish-purplish brown
- Pronunciation: pah-dook
- Scientific name: Pterocarpus soyauxii
Hailing from the tall, dense rainforests of Cameroon, Congo and Nigeria, African padauk is a strong, dense and heavy hardwood. It is popular for a range of interior applications.
This species typically starts life with a vibrant reddish-orange colour which tends to deepen significantly over time to a reddish-purple brown. Perfect for luxury joinery projects.
Panga panga
- Origins: Southern Africa
- Common uses: Flooring, furniture, musical instruments
- Appearance: Dark brown
- Scientific name: Millettia stuhlmannii
This species is spread across the forests of Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Mozambique.
Resistant to fungi and termites and incredibly dense, Panga panga is commonly used for furniture, specialist joinery and even boatbuilding.
Dark brown with black streaks, this is yet another stunning, high-performance hardwood.
Ayous
- Origins: West and central Africa
- Common uses: Exterior cladding, fencing
- Appearance: Light yellow (pre treatment); medium brown (post treatment)
- Pronunciation: ayy-use
- Scientific name: Triplochiton scleroxylon
Also known as African whitewood, abachi and obeche, this is another classy hardwood hailing from central and west Africa.
Initially with a light yellow colour, like frake, ayous is often sustainably modified thermally.
This creates a product known as ‘Thermo-ayous’ – a high-performance timber for external cladding and fencing applications, with a luxurious tropical mid-brown colour.
Frake
- Origins: West Africa
- Common uses: Exterior cladding
- Appearance: Light yellow-brown (pre treatment); Medium-dark brown with no knots (post treatment)
- Pronunciation: frak-ay
- Scientific name: Terminalia superba
Also known as limba and afara, this hardwood is also particularly popular for use externally after it has been thermally modified.
The bark of this tree has even been used in traditional medicines for treating wounds, sores and more.
What about sustainability of African hardwoods?
Historically, African hardwoods have been associated with unsustainable forestry and overexploitation. Thankfully, much progress has been made in recent years.
As part of UK and European Union timber regulations (UKTR and EUTR), due diligence has to be carried out to trace the source of any timber being imported. These regulations are set to become even more stringent, with the requirement for GPS locations for every felled tree.
The key is to only buy your wood from a timber importer and merchant with a clear environmental commitment, who carry out all appropriate traceability and due diligence on forest managers.
You might also like to specify a wood certification scheme, like PEFC or FSC.
At Duffield Timber, we frequently visit our suppliers – read a little more about one of our trips to Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo.
‘Tropical’? ‘Exotic’?
When discussing hardwoods, particularly those from Africa, South America and Asia, you’ll often see them referred to as ‘tropical’. This is simply because they are harvested from trees grown in the tropics, the area surrounding the equator.
You may also see these types of wood referred to as ‘exotic’ – this is often used interchangeably with tropical, but simply means wood from a different part of the world.
Searching for something tropical?
We regularly take deliveries of sustainably-sourced tropical African hardwoods. Many can be found by visitng us near Ripon, North Yorkshire, and exploring our hobbyist, joinery and woodworking shop.
Contact our team to discuss your next tropical timber project.
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