Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus Diospyros, which also includes the persimmon tree.
A few Diospyros species, such as macassar and mun ebony, are dense enough to sink in water. Species of ebony include Diospyros ebenum (Ceylon ebony), native to southern India and Sri Lanka; D. crassiflora (Gabon ebony), native to western Africa; Diospyros blancoi (Philippine ebony, also known as kamagong); D. humilis (Queensland ebony), native to Queensland, the Northern Territory, New Guinea and Timor; and D. celebica (Sulawesi ebony), native to Indonesia and prized for its luxuriant, multi-colored wood grain. Mauritius ebony, D. tessellaria, was largely exploited by the Dutch in the 17th century.
Types of Ebony
Other types of ebony include: Macassar (striped) Ebony, and Black and White Ebony. Some species in the genus yield an ebony with similar physical properties, but striped rather than the even black of D.
African Blackwood is very similar in density, color, and (unfortunately) cost, but is technically in the Dalbergia genus and isn’t considered a true ebony.
Jackalberry (Diospyros mespiliformis)
Diospyros mespiliformis, the jackalberry (also known as African ebony and by its Afrikaans name jakkalsbessie), is a large dioecious evergreen tree found mostly in the savannas of Africa. Jackals are fond of the fruit, hence the common names. It is a member of the family Ebenaceae, and is related to the true ebony (D. ebenum) and edible persimmon.
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Characteristics of Jackalberry
Mature trees have dark gray fissured bark. An adult tree reaches an average of 4 to 6 metres in height, though occasionally trees reach 25 metres. The foliage is dense and dark green with elliptical leaves, which are often eaten by grazing animals such as elephants and buffalo. The tree flowers in the rainy season; the flowers are imperfect, with genders on separate trees, and are cream-colored. The female tree bears fruit in the dry season and these are eaten by many wild animals; they are oval-shaped, yellow or purple when ripe and about 20-30 mm in diameter. On average the fruit contains 2-5 brown seeds.
Jackalberry trees often grow in riparian forests and on termite mounds, preferring deep alluvial soils, but are not uncommon on sandy soils in savanna. It grows in mutualism with termites, which aerate the soil around its roots but do not eat the living wood; in turn, the tree provides protection for the termites. The jackalberry is the largest member of its genus in the southern subtropics, and is northwards present to the Sahara.
Uses of Jackalberry
The fruit is edible for humans; its flavor has been described as lemon-like, with a chalky consistency when unripe, and sweet fleshy when ripe. Most people prefer letting them dry before eating, and the dry ones are stored and consumed as a snack when the fresh fruit goes out of season. The leaves, bark and roots of the tree contain tannin, which can be used as a styptic to staunch bleeding. The wood of the jackalberry is almost impervious to termite damage.
The heart wood is fine-grained and strong, and is often used for making wood floors and furniture. Trunks of the tree are used for canoes.
Diospyros tessellaria (Mauritian Ebony or Black Ebony)
Diospyros tessellaria, commonly known as Mauritian Ebony or Black Ebony, is an evergreen shrub or small tree about 20 m in height that can be found in Africa. Its leaves are thick and dark green in colour. Flowers and fruits are small. Its bark and heartwood are black while its sapwood is white.
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Characteristics
Diospyros tessellaria is an evergreen Tree growing to 15 m (49ft) by 15 m (49ft) at a slow rate. It is hardy to UK zone 10. The flowers are pollinated by Bats. It is noted for attracting wildlife.
Growing Conditions
Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: mildly acid, neutral and basic (mildly alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade.
Other Uses
A high quality timber, known as 'Mauritius Ebony' is obtained from the tree. The bark is black, the sapwood is white and the heartwood black. Tolerates both dry lowland areas and upland wet rainforest. Now rarely coastal.
A canopy tree that was exploited on a large scale during the Dutch occupation of Mauritius in the 17th century. You may have to wait 50 years to harvest the black infamous heartwood.
Prefers temperatures no less than 54 F. Plants For A Future have a number of books available in paperback and digital form. Book titles include Edible Plants, Edible Perennials, Edible Trees,Edible Shrubs, Woodland Gardening, and Temperate Food Forest Plants.
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Seed Propagation
Seed - it has a very short viability and so should be sown as soon as possible. The flesh should be removed since this contains germination inhibitors. Sow the seed in a shady position in a nursery seedbed.
The sowing media for ebony uses soil and fine sand at the ratio 3:1. The seed is planted horizontally or vertically with the radicle end down, with a sowing depth of 1 - 1.5x the thickness of seed. Distance between the seeds is 3 - 5cm. Seeds are very sensitive to desiccation during germination and early growth, so must be regularly watered at this time. Normally the seed will germinate after one week. In one trial, fresh seed, sown one day after collection, showed 85% germination rate within 17 - 65 days.
As a rule fresh seeds have a high percentage of fertility. The seedlings develop long taproots at an early stage, often before any appreciable elongation of the shoot takes place.
Gaboon Ebony
There’s no mistaking Gaboon Ebony as there are few woods that are deep and solid black (unless dyed), and even most species in the Diospyros genus aren’t black.
Properties of Gaboon Ebony
- Color/Appearance: Heartwood is usually jet-black, with little to no variation or visible grain.
- Grain/Texture: Grain is usually straight but can also be interlocked.
- Workability: Can be difficult to work due to its extremely high density. Has a dulling effect on cutters. Tearout may occur on pieces that have interlocked or irregular grain. Due to the high oil content found in this wood, it can occasionally cause problems with gluing. Finishes well, and polishes to a high luster.
- Allergies/Toxicity: Although severe reactions are quite uncommon, Ebony in the Diospyros genus has been reported as a sensitizer. Usually most common reactions simply include eye, skin, and respiratory irritation.
- Pricing/Availability: Gaboon Ebony is among the most expensive of all available lumbers: usually about two to three times more expensive than most species of Rosewood.
Sustainability
This wood species is in CITES Appendix II (for Diospyros species from Madagascar), and is on the IUCN Red List. As a result of unsustainable harvesting, many species yielding ebony are now considered threatened.
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West African Ebony (Diospyros senegalensis)
West African ebony is an evergreen tree with a rounded, dense crown; it varies considerably in height, sometimes flowering as a shrub when just 3 metres tall, growing 12 - 15 metres tall in drier areas of its range and 25 metres or more (with reports of trees up to 50 metres) in the wetter areas. The wood is highly prized and therefore commonly harvested from the wild and traded internationally.
The tree is an important source of food, medicine and other commodities for the local people and is often kept unfelled when land is being cleared for farming.
Range
Tropical Africa - Senegal to Eritrea and Yemen, south to Namibia, Transvaal and Mozambique.
Habitat
Riparian forest, more rarely on termite mounds or rocky outcrops or in dry semi-evergreen forest at elevations of 60 - 1,370 metres.
Cultivation Details
A plant of the dry to moist tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 1,300 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 16 - 27°c, but can tolerate 12 - 34°c. Prefers a sunny position. Prefers heavy soils. Prefers rocky soils along seasonal water courses and swamps. It grows well in moist, red loams, volcanic and loamy sands. A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required.
Edible Uses
Fruit - raw, cooked, dried or made into beverages by fermentation. A sweet flavour, similar to the persimmon (D. kaki). A kind of soft toffee can be made from the fruits, which along with some other similar edible fruits, such as figs and dates, are known as lubiya. The leaves are sometimes eaten.
Medicinal Uses
The plant is widely used in traditional medicine in parts of Africa, and a number of medically active constituents have been isolated. The principle constituent appears to be plumbagin, which has been shown to have antibiotic, antihaemorrhagic and fungistatic properties. It is found in the root-bark to a concentration of 0.9% and but a trace in the leaves. Tannin, saponin and a substance probably identical to scopolamine are also present.
The leaves are astringent, febrifuge, haemostatic, mildly laxative, stimulant and vermifuge. Such reliance is placed on this drug-plant that it is usually prescribed alone. An infusion is used in the treatment of a range of conditions - it is very effective in the treatment of fevers and infectious fevers; and is also used for dysentery; pneumonia; syphilis; leprosy and yaws. Shavings of the wood, combined with the pods of Acacia nilotica and roots of Borassus spp, are pounded in water and boiled for about two hours, after which the liquid is used in Nigeria to rinse the mouth for treating toothache. Sap from freshly felled trees, as also water from holes in the tree, or an infusion of the black heart-wood, are similarly used.
Agroforestry Uses
Said to be a suitable species for reforestation.
Wood Properties
The heartwood is black, very hard, but appears only in older trees over a certain girth; it is clearly demarcated from the 5 - 12cm wide band of creamy to reddish yellow sapwood that produces bands of black. The freshly cut wood is light pinkish-brown, slightly darker to the centre. Blackening of the heart-wood develops only after felling and appears to depend on edaphic characters, trees from savannah situations blackening while those from more thickly forested areas do not.
The texture is fine; the grain straight or slightly interlocked. The wood is heavy, very hard, strong; very durable, being resistant to fungi, dry wood borers and termites. It seasons slowly, with a high risk of checking or distortion; once dry it is poorly stable in service.
Workability
The wood is difficult to saw and work, with serious dulling effect on saws and cutting edges - stellite tipped and tungsten carbide tools are recommended; the surfaces take an excellent polish, but picking up of interlocked or curly grain may occur in planing and a reduced cutting angle is recommended; it has a tendency to split upon nailing, and pre-boring is advised; it has good slicing properties, but powerful machines are needed; the gluing properties are satisfactory.
Uses of the Wood
The heartwood is valued for black-wood cabinetry, furniture manufacture and high-class carpentry. It is also used for heavy flooring, interior trim, ship building, vehicle bodies, musical instruments (especially the black keys of pianos, but also guitar fingerboards), precision equipment, turnery, carvings, knife-handles and brush backs. The wood makes good fuel wood and charcoal.
Propagation
Seed - pre-soak overnight by immersing the seed in hot water which is allowed to cool in order to break dormancy. They should be sown in flat seed trays filled with river sand. Under ideal conditions seeds germinate within 50 days. Seedlings are then planted out when they reach the 3-leaf stage because if left longer, the taproot may be damaged when transplanting. They are rather slow growing initially but the growth rate speeds up considerably after a year. Seed storage behaviour is orthodox.
Uses of Ebony
By the end of the 16th century, fine cabinets for the luxury trade were made of ebony in Antwerp. The wood's dense hardness lent itself to refined moldings framing finely detailed pictorial panels with carving in very low relief (bas-relief), usually of allegorical subjects, or with scenes taken from classical or Christian history.
Modern uses are largely restricted to small items, such as crucifixes, the main body of some musical instruments such as the clarinet, oboe, or piccolo and musical instrument parts, including black piano, organ, and harpsichord keys; violin, viola, mandolin, guitar, double bass, and cello fingerboards; tailpieces; tuning pegs; chinrests; and bow frogs.
- Traditionally, black chess pieces were made from ebony, with boxwood or ivory being used for the white pieces.
- Modern East Midlands-style lace-making bobbins, also being small, are often made of ebony and look particularly decorative when bound with brass or silver wire.
Ancient Egyptians used heartwood of ebony for carving. Ebony tree can survive hundreds of years.
Historical Significance
It was employed by the ancient kings of India for sceptres and images and, because of its supposed antagonism to poison, for drinking cups. Herodotus states that the Ethiopians every three years sent a tribute of 200 logs of ebony to Persia.
Varieties of Ebony
The best Indian and Ceylon ebony is produced by Diospyros ebenum, which grows in abundance throughout the flat country west of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka. The tree is distinguished by the width of its trunk and its jet-black charred-looking bark, beneath which the wood is pure white until the heart is reached. The heartwood excels in fineness and in the intensity of its dark colour. Although the centre of the tree alone is used, reduced logs 30 cm to almost 1 metre (1 to 3 feet) in diameter can be obtained.
Much of the East Indian ebony is yielded by the Coromandel ebony (D. melanoxylon), a large tree attaining a height of 18-24 metres (59-79 feet) and a circumference of 2.4-3 metres (about 8-10 feet) and having irregular branches and oblong leaves.
The calamander tree (D. quaesita) produces an ebony wood known in Sri Lanka as calamander. Its closeness of grain, great hardness, and fine hazel-brown colour, mottled and striped with black, render it valuable for veneering and furniture making.
Bombay ebony (D. montana) yields a yellowish gray, soft, but durable wood. It is native to India.
