''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

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 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 alternate, divided into a symmetrical pair of large leaflets long and broad. The flowers are small, with five white petals, produced in

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

s. The fruit is a

pod Pod or POD may refer to: Biology * Pod (fruit), a type of fruit of a flowering plant * Husk or pod of a legume * Pod of whales or other marine mammals * "-pod", a suffix meaning "foot" used in taxonomy Electronics and computing * Proper ort ...

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 The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

. ''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 (UV) 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.

Uses and hazards

Purpleheart is prized for use in fine inlay work especially on musical instruments, guitar fret boards (although rarely), woodturning, cabinetry, flooring, and

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

. It is also used in many hobby woodworking projects, such as bottle stoppers, pens, bowls, knife scales, and jewelry boxes. The timber is also valuable in applications that require toughness, such as truck decking. 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 ( neoflavonoid) 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 Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

.''Peltogyne'' in POWO
last accessed 10 April 2021 *''

Peltogyne altissima ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central a ...

'' Ducke *''

Peltogyne angustiflora ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central ...

'' Ducke *''

Peltogyne campestris ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central ...

'' Ducke *''

Peltogyne catingae ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central a ...

'' Ducke *'' Peltogyne chrysopis'' Barneby *'' Peltogyne crenulata'' Afr.Fern. *''

Peltogyne discolor ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central a ...

'' Vogel *''

Peltogyne excelsa ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central A ...

'' Ducke *''

Peltogyne floribunda ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central a ...

'' (Kunth) Pittier *'' Peltogyne gracilipes'' Ducke *''

Peltogyne heterophylla ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central ...

'' M.F.Silva *'' Peltogyne lecointei'' Ducke *''

Peltogyne maranhensis ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central a ...

'' Ducke *'' Peltogyne mattosiana'' Rizzini *''

Peltogyne mexicana ''Peltogyne mexicana'' is a species of tree that belongs to the family Fabaceae. Members of the genus ''Peltogyne'' are commonly known in different regions as purpleheart, morao, nazareno, violeta, pau roxo, or palo morado. The genus ''Peltogyne ...

'' Martinez *'' Peltogyne paniculata'' Benth. *'' Peltogyne paradoxa'' Ducke *''

Peltogyne parvifolia ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central a ...

'' Benth. *''

Peltogyne pauciflora ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central a ...

'' Benth. *''

Peltogyne prancei ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central A ...

'' M.F.Silva *''

Peltogyne purpurea ''Peltogyne purpurea'', commonly known as nazareno, or purpleheart, is a species of '' Peltogyne'' tree native to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and Panama, and also the Atlantic coast of Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic ...

'' Pittier *''

Peltogyne recifensis ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central ...

'' Ducke *''

Peltogyne subsessilis ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central a ...

'' W.A.Rodrigues *''

Peltogyne venosa ''Peltogyne'', commonly known as purpleheart, violet wood, amaranth and other local names (often referencing the colour of the wood) is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae; native to tropical rainforests of Central a ...

'' (M.Vahl) Benth.

Gallery

File:Purpleheart wood.jpg, Image:Purpleheart-Lyptus-Cherrywoods.jpg, A board laminated with Purpleheart (the darkest of the three), as well as the lighter colored

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

and the salmon colored

Lyptus Lyptus is the trade name of a wood made from a hybrid of two species of Eucalyptus tree, ''Eucalyptus grandis'' and ''Eucalyptus urophylla''. Developed for quick harvesting, and grown on plantations in Brazil, Lyptus is marketed as an environmenta ...

. File:Peltogyne sp. MHNT.BOT.2010.6.48.jpg, Peltogyne sp. - MHNT

References

*
Virtual Flora of Guyana: ''Peltogyne'' herbarium photos
* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q687351 Detarioideae Fabaceae genera Flora of Guyana Flora of Brazil Flora of Suriname