Mahogany
Overview
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni
Swietenia mahagoni
Swietenia mahagoni, commonly known as the West Indies Mahogany, is a species of Swietenia native to southern Florida, USA, The Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola. It is the species from which the original mahogany wood was produced....
, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany.
The term was next applied to the wood of Swietenia macrophylla
Swietenia macrophylla
Swietenia macrophylla, commonly known as big leaf mahogany, is a species of plant in the Meliaceae family. It is one of two species that yields genuine mahogany timber, the other being Swietenia mahagoni....
, which is closely related, and known as Honduras mahogany. Both are from the Meliaceae
Meliaceae
The Meliaceae, or the Mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs in the order Sapindales....
family.
Today, all species of Swietenia
Swietenia
Swietenia is a genus of trees in the chinaberry family, Meliaceae. It occurs natively in the Neotropics, from southern Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America south to Bolivia...
grown in their native locations are listed by CITES, and are therefore protected.
