Zebrawood | The Wood Database (Hardwood) (original) (raw)

Zebrawood (Microberlinia brazzavillensis)

Common Name(s): Zebrawood, zebrano, zingana

Scientific Name: Microberlinia brazzavillensis

Distribution: West Africa

Tree Size: 65-130 ft (20-40 m) tall,

4-5 ft (1.2-1.5 m) trunk diameter

Average Dried Weight: 50 lbs/ft3 (805 kg/m3)

Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): 0.67, 0.81

Janka Hardness: 1,830 lbf (8,160 N)

Modulus of Rupture: 17,800 lbf/in2 (122.8 MPa)

Elastic Modulus: 2,374,000 lbf/in2 (16.37 GPa)

Crushing Strength: 9,210 lbf/in2 (63.5 MPa)

Shrinkage: Radial: 7.6%, Tangential: 10.8%,

Volumetric: 17.8%, T/R Ratio: 1.4

Color/Appearance: Heartwood is a light brown or cream color with dark blackish brown streaks vaguely resembling a zebra’s stripes. Depending on whether the wood is flatsawn or quartersawn, the stripes can be either wide and erratic (flatsawn), or somewhat narrow and uniform (quartersawn).

Grain/Texture: Grain is interlocked and/or wavy; uniform, medium to coarse texture with good natural luster.

Rot Resistance: Heartwood is rated as durable and is also resistant to insect damage.

Workability: The wood saws well, but can be very difficult to plane or surface due to the prevalence of interlocking grain. Tearout is common. Zebrawood glues and finishes well, though a transparent pore filler may be necessary for the large open pores which occur on both dark and light surfaces.

Odor: Has a characteristic, unpleasant smell when being worked.

Allergies/Toxicity: Although severe reactions are quite uncommon, zebrawood has been reported as a sensitizer. Usually most common reactions simply include eye and skin irritation. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety for more information.

Pricing/Availability: Tends to be available in both veneer and lumber form, with good sizes available. Prices are high, even for an imported hardwood, though not necessarily as prohibitively expensive as scarcer African imports such as Gaboon ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) or pink ivory (Berchemia zeyheri).

Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, but is on the IUCN Red List. It is listed as vulnerable due to a population reduction of over 20% in the past three generations, caused by a decline in its natural range. However, a closely-related (though lesser-used) species endemic to Cameroon, Microberlinia bisulcata, is also sold interchangeably as zebrawood and is listed as endangered.[1]van der Burgt, X. & Cheek, M. 2022. Microberlinia bisulcata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: … Continue reading

Common Uses: Zebrawood is frequently quartersawn and used as veneer. Other uses include tool handles, furniture, musical instruments, boatbuilding, carvings, turned objects, and skis.

Comments: Sometimes called zebrano, the wood is strong and stiff, with a fairly high density. However, the wood is much more frequently used for its bold and unique striping.

The species name, brazzavillensis, is named after Brazzaville, the capital city of the Republic of the Congo. Although the species occurs more frequently in West Africa, French botanist Auguste Chevalier (1873-1956) ended up using a specimen collected near Brazzaville, in conjunction with previous specimens from Gabon, to first describe both the species itself and the (then) new genus, Microberlinia.[2]Chevalier, A. (1946). Sur diverses Légumineuses Caesalpiniées à feuilles multi et parvifoliolées vivant dans les forêts d’Afrique tropicale et donnant des bois recherchés. Journal … Continue reading

Images: Drag the slider up/down to toggle between raw and finished wood. The wood samples pictured below:

Microberlinia brazzavillensis, quartersawn
M. brazzavillensis, flatsawn
M. brazzavillensis, birdseye
M. bisulcata, flatsawn

A special thanks to Steve Earis for providing the turned photo of this wood species.

Porosity: diffuse porous; annual growth rings generally not discernible and stripe patterns do not strictly coincide with growing seasons

Arrangement: solitary and radial multiples

Vessels: very large, very few; brown deposits common

Parenchyma: diffuse-in-aggregates, vasicentric, winged, lozenge, confluent, and banded

Rays: narrow width, normal to close spacing; rays are generally not visible without magnification

Lookalikes/Substitutes: The dramatic striping of zebrawood is usually not confused with any other commonly-available hardwoods. However, there are some lesser known species that can have a similar appearance. Although Fabaceae is a vast and diverse botanical family, it is sometimes subdivided into smaller sub-families and tribes, with zebrawood falling in the tribe Amherstieae.[3]de la Estrella, M., Forest, F., Klitgård, B., Lewis, G. P., Mackinder, B. A., de Queiroz, L. P., Wieringa, J. J., & Bruneau, A. (2018). A new phylogeny-based tribal classification of subfamily … Continue reading Two other African hardwoods also in this closely related tribe are beli (Julbernardia pellegriniana) and ebiara (Berlinia spp.), with the latter even being being called red zebrawood on occasion.

Anatomically, all of these woods can be very similar, and generally gross features like overall color and scent can be more helpful to separate these woods. In general, zebrawood has an unpleasant scent when being worked, and tends to have the most consistent streaks, as well as the highest amount of contrast between the light and dark parts of the wood.

Notes: The two Microberlinia species, M. bisulcata and M. brazzavillensis can be sold interchangeably and are more or less indistinguishable. However, the endangered M. bisulcata is generally only found in Cameroon, so if the source country can be reliably ascertained as outside of Cameroon, M. bisulcata could probably be safely ruled out.

The Microberlinia genus contains only two recognized species, M. bisulcata and M. brazzavillensis. Both species are sold interchangably as zebrawood and are represented on this page.

However, even though the Fabaceae (legume) family is very diverse, it is sometimes subdivided into smaller sub-families and tribes, with zebrawood falling in the tribe Amherstieae. Some other genera in this tribe that bear commercial woods include Berlinia (ebiara) (though after DNA testing _Berlinia_‘s inclusion in the Amherstieae tribe is currently in question.[4]de la Estrella, M., Forest, F., Klitgård, B., Lewis, G. P., Mackinder, B. A., de Queiroz, L. P., Wieringa, J. J., & Bruneau, A. (2018). A new phylogeny-based tribal classification of subfamily … Continue reading), Julbernardia (beli), and Brachystegia (okwen)—indeed, Chevalier initially identified his early zebrawood specimens (decades prior to his 1946 description of the Microberlinia genus) as Brachystegia species.[5]Chevalier, A. (1946). Sur diverses Légumineuses Caesalpiniées à feuilles multi et parvifoliolées vivant dans les forêts d’Afrique tropicale et donnant des bois recherchés. Journal … Continue reading