Tropical wood · Tropical America
Mangle Colorado wood
Mangle Colorado (Rhizophora mangle, family Rhizophoraceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 2,760 lbf (12,277 N), and air-dry it weighs about 67 lb/ft³ (1,073 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 269–270.
Other names, by country: Candelón, Mangle dulce (Mexico), Mangle rojo (Colombia), Purgua (Venezuela), Apareiba, Mangué sapateiro (Brazil), Mangle geli (Ecuador).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 2,760 lbf (12,277 N)
- Green: 2,240 lbf (9,964 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 2,240 lb for green material and 2,760 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 67 lb/ft³ (1,073 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.89 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.89; air-dry density 67 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 10.7% tangential
- Radial 5.0%, volumetric 14.3%
One source: USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Tropical Timbers of the World (Chudnoff, 1979 edition), the only published source read for this wood
Strength
Bending strength is the modulus of rupture (MOR); stiffness is the modulus of elasticity (MOE); crushing strength is compression parallel to the grain. The sheet collects these from published tests: it prints 4 data sets, from different tests and sources, so they can differ widely; all are shown, in the sheet's order, each at the moisture content printed beside it, never restated as 12%.
| Moisture | Bending strength (MOR) | Stiffness (MOE) | Crushing strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 15,200 psi (105 MPa) | 2.3 million psi (15.9 GPa) | 6,490 psi (45 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 21,700 psi (150 MPa) | 2.95 million psi (20.3 GPa) | 10,750 psi (74 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 24,000 psi (165 MPa) | 3.26 million psi (22.5 GPa) | — |
| 15% MC | 28,400 psi (196 MPa) | 3.48 million psi (24 GPa) | 13,500 psi (93 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood light red, deepening to dark red or reddish-brown, sometimes purplish; uniform or more or less striped; rather sharply defined from the yellowish, grayish, or pinkish sapwood. Texture fine to medium; grain straight to irregular; luster low; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- Generally difficult to work because of its high density; can finish smoothly where grain is straight.
- Durability
- Heartwood is reported to be resistant to attack by decay fungi but not to marine borers and dry-wood termites.
- Uses
- Boat construction, general heavy construction, charcoal, railroad crossties, turnery, bark has a high tannin content (30% based on ovendry weight) and is used commercially.
- Where it grows
- Coastal areas and brackish streambanks from central and southern Florida southward to Ecuador, northwestern Peru, and Brazil, including the West Indies. Also in Melanesia, Polynesia, and the Galapagos Islands.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 269–270, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for outdoor work with the species picker
Weigh mangle Colorado against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.