Purpleheart
Encyclopedia
- For other meanings see Purple Heart (disambiguation)Purple Heart (disambiguation)The Purple Heart is a US military decoration. It may also refer to:Plants:* Purpleheart, 23 species of tropical flowering plants* Purple Heart, the most widely-grown cultivar of Tradescantia pallidaFilms:...
Peltogyne, known as Purpleheart, is a genus of 23 species of flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s in the family Fabaceae
Fabaceae
The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species...
, native to tropical regions of Central
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, where they occur in tropical rainforest
Tropical rainforest
A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs roughly within the latitudes 28 degrees north or south of the equator . This ecosystem experiences high average temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall...
s.
They are medium-sized to large trees growing to 30-50 m tall, with trunk diameters of up to 1.5 m. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are alternate, divided into a symmetrical pair of large leaflets 5-10 cm long and 2-4 cm broad. The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are small, with five white petals, produced in panicle
Panicle
A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....
s. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
is a pod containing a single seed.
Wood
Brown
Brown is a color term, denoting a range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red, rose, or yellow with black or gray. The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color....
to a rich purple
Purple
Purple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....
color. Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light darkens the wood to a brown color with a slight hue of the original purple. This effect can be minimized with a finish containing a UV inhibitor. The dry wood is very hard and dense with a specific gravity
Specific gravity
Specific gravity is the ratio of the density of a substance to the density of a reference substance. Apparent specific gravity is the ratio of the weight of a volume of the substance to the weight of an equal volume of the reference substance. The reference substance is nearly always water for...
of 0.86 (54 lb/ft^3 or 860 kg/m^3). This wood is quite dense, and if it is to be worked, then a sharp carbide blade is required to cut it. For uses of this wood it is prized for fine inlay work, woodturning
Woodturning
Woodturning is a form of woodworking that is used to create wooden objects on a lathe . Woodturning differs from most other forms of woodworking in that the wood is moving while a stationary tool is used to cut and shape it...
, cabinetry, flooring, and furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
. Exposure to the dust generated by cutting and sanding purpleheart can cause iritation and nausea, possibly due to the presence of dalbergione (neoflavonoid) compounds in the wood. This also makes purpleheart wood unsuitable to most people for use in jewelry. The wood is also known as amaranth and violet wood. Overharvesting has caused several species to become endangered in areas where they were once abundant.
Species
- Peltogyne altissima Ducke
- Peltogyne angustiflora Ducke
- Peltogyne campestris Ducke
- Peltogyne catingae Ducke
- Peltogyne confertiflora (Hayne) Benth.
- Peltogyne discolor Vogel
- Peltogyne excelsa Ducke
- Peltogyne floribunda (Kunth) Pittier
- Peltogyne gracilipes Ducke
- Peltogyne heterophylla M.F.Silva
- Peltogyne lecointei Ducke
- Peltogyne maranhensis Ducke
- Peltogyne mattosiana Rizzini
- Peltogyne mexicana Martinez
- Peltogyne paniculata Benth.
- Peltogyne paradoxa Ducke
- Peltogyne parvifolia Benth.
- Peltogyne pauciflora Benth.
- Peltogyne prancei M.F.Silva
- Peltogyne purpurea Pittier
- Peltogyne recifensis Ducke
- Peltogyne subsessilis W.A.Rodrigues
- Peltogyne venosa (M.Vahl) Benth.sfd