''Chlorocardium rodiei'' (greenheart) is a species of flowering plant in the family

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant family that includes the true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genera worldwide (Christenhusz & Byng 2016 ). They are dicotyledons, and occur ma ...

. It is one of two species in the genus ''

Chlorocardium ''Chlorocardium'' is a genus of the family Lauraceae. It contains only three species, '' C. esmeraldense'', '' C. rodiei'' and '' C. venenosum'', and is native to northern South America. The name ''Chlorocardium'' means green ( chloro-) heart ( ...

''. It is native to

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

and

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. Other common names include cogwood, demerara greenheart, greenhart, ''ispingo moena'', ''sipiri'', ''bebeeru'' and ''bibiru''. It is an

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

growing 15 to 30 m tall with a trunk diameter of 35 to 60 cm. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are oppositely arranged and simple with smooth edges. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is a

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

containing a single

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

The cyclic bisbenzylisoquinoline

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...

rodiasine Rodiasine is a cyclic bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid that was first isolated from the South American greenheart tree ''Chlorocardium rodiei ''Chlorocardium rodiei'' (greenheart) is a species of flowering plant in the family Lauraceae. It is on ...

was first isolated from this species. The wood is extremely hard and strong, so hard that it cannot be worked with standard tools. It is durable in marine conditions, so it is used to build docks and other structures, and it was an early choice for fly fishing rods. An estimated 15 to 28% of the original population has been harvested. The species' use as a commercial timber began in the late 18th century, but most of the harvesting has taken place since the introduction of

chainsaw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable gasoline-, electric-, or battery-powered saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. It is used in activities such as tree felling, limbing, bucking, pruning, ...

s in 1967. The ''

Fram Fram may refer to: Ships * ''Fram'' (ship), an arctic exploration vessel from Norway * MS ''Fram'', expedition cruise ship owned by Hurtigruten Group Places and geography * Fram, Paraguay, a town in Itapúa, Paraguay * Fram Formation, a se ...

'' and the ''

Endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from a ...

'', made famous in the polar expeditions of

Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen began ...

and

Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of An ...

, were the two strongest wooden ships ever constructed and were sheathed in greenheart to prevent them from being crushed by ice. It is often sought for construction projects in parts of the Caribbean, where

wood ants Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin tha ...

are problematic in conventional pine wood construction. It was also used to build the dock gates in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, such as the Manchester dock gate. It has bee
used extensively as marine piling
since it is highly resistant to marine borers. It is also extremely dense, and does not float, therefore requiring special water transport arrangement, and is loaded onto specially constructed pontoons for transport to sawmill or direct shipping overseas. As sawn lumber it requires special treatment, and saws with tungsten carbide teeth, since standard steel saw blades cannot be maintained sharp enough to cut any reasonable quantity.

References

External links

Germplasm Resources Information Network: ''Chlorocardium''
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060902125047/http://www.forestry.gov.gy/Downloads/21%20Species%20Booklet%202004.pdf Guyana Forestry Commission: Guyana Woods(pdf file; Greenheart, p. 7). {{Taxonbar, from=Q906454 Lauraceae Trees of Guyana Trees of Suriname Data deficient plants Wood