BRAZILIAN WOOD

Name scientific: Caesalpinia echinata

Familia: Fabaceae, Caesalpinioideae.

Origin: Brazil

Popular names: pau-brasil, ibirapitanga, orabutã, brasileto, ibirapiranga, ibirapita, ibirapitã, muirapiranga, rosewood, pau-de-pernambuco.

Natural occurrence: from Ceará to Rio de Janeiro, and also in the south of Bahia.

Features: pau-brasil, called by the Indians 'ibirapitanga', which means “red wood”, is an inedible leguminous tree, with pods covered by a thick and thorny bark, of a green-brown color. It presents specimens that are between 10 and 15 meters high, and the thorny trunk is coated with bark, which covers the orange wood.

Usage: its wood is used in the construction of violin bows. From the wood it is also possible to extract the “brasileína”, a type of dye, used in the dyeing of clothes. Due to overexploitation, the species almost went extinct around 1920 and is currently considered endangered.

See all tree and shrub species mapped on Bahiana