Tropical Hardwoods: Species List, Hardness, Decay, CITES

Tropical hardwoods are timbers cut from broadleaf trees in tropical and subtropical moist forests: teak, mahogany, sapele, iroko, ipe, jatoba, purpleheart, wenge, cocobolo, ebony and rosewood are the names most people meet. Wikipedia's tropical timber article gives chloroxylon, ebony, mahogany, narra (Pterocarpus indicus), rosewood and teak as examples of industrial importance.

"Hardwood" is a botanical label. Wikipedia defines hardwood as wood from flowering (angiosperm) trees, and points out that some hardwoods, balsa being the example, are softer than most softwoods. Balsa is itself tropical: the Wood Database lists it at a Janka hardness of 67 lbf and an average dried weight of 9 lb per cubic foot, and it is used for model aircraft, buoys, surfboards and the core of sandwich panels. At the other end, several tropical woods are the hardest timbers traded anywhere.

The worldrainforests.com timber page, which cites the Rainforest Action Network, FAO and CIRAD, groups commonly harvested tropical hardwoods by continent:

• Africa - iroko (sold as African teak), afara (korina), sapele, utile, ayan, ebony, sipo, okoume (gaboon), moabi, ayous, African mahogany (Khaya), wenge and ozigo.
• Asia - ironwood, amboyna, kapur, sepetir, white seraya, jelutong, ramin, the meranti group and teak.
• Latin America - mahogany, virola, balsa, greenheart, crabwood, mora, ekki and Brazil nut.

Many of these reach North American buyers under trade names rather than botanical ones, which is where most identification mistakes start (see the trade-name traps below).

The USDA Wood Handbook defines hardness as resistance to indentation, measured with a modified Janka test. Side hardness at 12% moisture, softest to hardest; values marked (USDA) are from the handbook's Table 5-5b, the rest from the Wood Database:

• Balsa - 67 lbf (Wood Database)
• True mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) - 800 lbf (USDA). Mahogany
• African mahogany (Khaya spp.) - 830 lbf (USDA)
• Teak (Tectona grandis) - 1,000 lbf (USDA). Teak
• Iroko (Chlorophora, now Milicia) - 1,260 lbf (USDA); the Wood Database gives 1,190
• Sapele (Entandrophragma cylindricum) - 1,510 lbf (USDA). Sapele
• Purpleheart (Peltogyne spp.) - 1,860 lbf (USDA). Purpleheart
• Wenge (Millettia laurentii) - 1,930 lbf (Wood Database). Wenge
• Jatoba, sold as Brazilian cherry (Hymenaea courbaril) - 2,350 lbf (USDA). Brazilian cherry
• Cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa) - 2,960 lbf (Wood Database)
• Ipe (lapacho group) - 3,680 lbf (USDA). Ipe
• Lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale) - 4,390 lbf (Wood Database)

For scale, domestic red oak, the usual flooring benchmark, is 1,290 lbf in the same handbook. So teak and mahogany are softer than oak, and only the dense decking and turning woods are several times harder.

Table 14-1 of the USDA Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282) groups imported woods by the average decay resistance of their heartwood. This is the most useful single list for outdoor projects, and the top-ranking sellers' pages do not include it.

• Very resistant - angelique, azobe, balata, goncalo alves, greenheart, ipe (lapacho), jarrah, lignumvitae, purpleheart, teak (old growth).
• Resistant - afrormosia, apamate, balaub, courbaril (jatoba), determa, iroko, kapur, karri, kempas, American mahogany, manni, Spanish-cedar, sucupira, wallaba.
• Moderately resistant - andiroba, avodire, benge, bubinga, ehie, ekop, keruing, African mahogany, dark red meranti, mersawa, sapele, young-growth teak, tornillo.
• Slightly or nonresistant - balsa, banak, cativo, ceiba, hura, jelutong, limba, light red, yellow and white meranti, obeche, okoume, parana pine, ramin, sande, sepetir, white seraya.

The handbook adds two cautions: resistance can be lower in ground contact or warm, humid climates, and sapwood of almost every species has little resistance. Note too that plantation or young-growth teak ranks a class below old-growth teak.

Several tropical hardwoods need export permits under CITES, the treaty on trade in endangered species.

• Rosewoods and bubinga - all Dalbergia species (including cocobolo, tulipwood, kingwood and African blackwood) and three bubinga species (Guibourtia demeusei, G. pellegriniana, G. tessmannii) went on Appendix II effective 2 January 2017, after the CoP17 meeting in Johannesburg (Wood Database).
• True mahogany - Wikipedia records Swietenia humilis on Appendix II in 1975, S. mahagoni in 1992, and S. macrophylla on Appendix III in 1995, moved to Appendix II in 2003.
• Ipe, cumaru, padauk and more - the US Fish & Wildlife Service lists ipe (Handroanthus, Roseodendron and Tabebuia), African mahoganies of the genus Afzelia, cumaru (Dipteryx), padauk (Pterocarpus) and Brazil wood (Paubrasilia echinata) on Appendix II from 25 November 2024.
• Lignum vitae - the Wood Database notes it is CITES-listed and suggests verawood as a close substitute.
• Wenge - not on CITES, but the Wood Database reports that the IUCN lists it as endangered after a population fall of more than 50% over three generations.

Appendix II is not a ban. The Wood Database explains that the rules govern international shipments: hobbyists can keep and work wood they already own, and the Dalbergia listing exempts non-commercial shipments of up to 10 kg, but raw wood crossing a border needs permits. When buying, ask for the botanical name and the CITES paperwork for any of these genera.

A tropical board is often sold under a name that belongs to a different tree. Knowing the common swaps saves money and avoids misidentification.

• "African teak" - usually iroko. The Wood Database says iroko is marketed as a cheaper teak substitute but is botanically unrelated.
• "African mahogany" - Wikipedia uses it for five Khaya species; the CITES list also uses it for Afzelia. Neither is Swietenia, the genuine mahogany. Our mahogany page shows the end-grain tell: Swietenia has marginal parenchyma bands that Khaya lacks.
• "Philippine mahogany" - Shorea and Parashorea (the meranti and lauan group), per Wikipedia; US rules require a qualifier for non-Swietenia woods.
• "Brazilian cherry" - jatoba (Hymenaea courbaril), not a cherry. It is 2,350 lbf against 950 lbf for American black cherry.
• "Amboyna" - not a species at all but the burl of narra and related Pterocarpus (Wood Database). See our types of burl wood guide.

A sanded end grain photographed in WoodLens gives a species suggestion to check against these pairs.

• Finish problems. The Wood Database explains that extractives in many tropical heartwoods, antioxidants in particular, leach into oil-based finishes such as polyurethane and stop them curing. Its list includes cocobolo, ebony, ipe, katalox, lignum vitae, padauk, rosewoods, teak and purpleheart. The fix it gives: wipe the surface with solvent, then seal with a few coats of dewaxed shellac (a 1 lb cut is 1 oz of flakes in 8 oz of denatured alcohol) before the topcoat.
• Dust and skin. The Wood Database calls cocobolo notoriously allergenic and a sensitizer; our wenge and ipe pages carry similar warnings. Use dust extraction and a respirator, and see a doctor if a rash or breathing symptoms appear.
• Tools. Teak contains silica that dulls edges quickly (see our teak page); carbide tooling is worth it for the dense species.

This page was drafted with AI help, and every fact was checked against the sources listed on the page.