IRON WOOD

Scientific name: Caesalpinia leiostachya

Familia:  Fabaceae

Origin: Native to the Atlantic Forest.

Popular names: ironwood, ibirá-Obi, icainha, imirá-Itá, jacá, among others.

Natural occurrence: from Southeast to Northeast Brazil.

Features: It is an evergreen to semi-deciduous tree, with a rounded and broad crown, with about 6 to 12 meters in diameter. It can reach up to 30 meters in height. Its trunk is unmistakable: smooth and gray when young, it gradually loses its bark in plates, becoming piebald. The flowers are yellow and small and flowering occurs in summer and autumn.

Usage: it has hard, dense, durable and resistant wood, of excellent quality for the manufacture of guitars and violins, and for civil construction. Some call it "Brazilian ebony" because of its high density.

See all tree and shrub species mapped on Bahiana