Millettia laurentii facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Millettia laurentii |
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| Tree in flower | |
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| Tangentially-sawn wood | |
| Scientific classification | |
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Millettieae
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| Genus: |
Millettia
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| Species: |
M. laurentii
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| Binomial name | |
| Millettia laurentii De Wild.
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Millettia laurentii is a legume tree that is native to central Africa. The species is listed as endangered in the IUCN Red List, mostly because people are destroying its habitat and over harvesting the tree for timber. The wood that comes from the tree is called wenge. It is a dark-coloured hardwood.
Wood
Wenge ( WING-gay) is a tropical timber, very dark in color with a distinctive figure and a strong partridge wood pattern. The wood is heavy and hard, suitable for flooring and staircases.
Several musical instrument makers employ wenge in their products. Mosrite used it for bodies of their Brass Rail models. Ibanez and Cort use it for the five-piece necks of some of their electric basses. Warwick electric basses use FSC sourced wenge for fingerboards and necks as of 2013. Crush drums use it on their limited reserve wenge drum kit. It is also used by Yamaha as the center ply of their Absolute Hybrid Maple drums.
The wood is popular in segmented woodturning because of its dimensional stability and color contrast when mixed with lighter woods such as maple. This makes it especially sought after in the manufacture of high-end wood canes.
The wood is sometimes used in the making of archery bows, particularly as a laminate in the production of flatbows. It can also be used in the making of rails or pin blocks on hammered dulcimers.
Images for kids
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Quartersawn surface
See also
In Spanish: Millettia laurentii para niños
