Tropical wood · Tropical America
Sucupira (Diplotropis) wood
Sucupira (Diplotropis) (Diplotropis purpurea, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 2,140 lbf (9,519 N), and air-dry it weighs about 58 lb/ft³ (929 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 129–130.
Other names, by country: Botonallare, Peonía (Venezuela), Tatabu, Aramatta (Guyana), Zwarte kabbes (Surinam), Coeur dehors (French Guiana), Sapupira, Supupira, Sucupira (Brazil).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 2,140 lbf (9,519 N)
- Green: 1,980 lbf (8,807 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,980 lb for green material and 2,140 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 58 lb/ft³ (929 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.78 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.78; air-dry density 58 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 7.0% tangential
- Radial 4.6%, volumetric 11.8%
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 3 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 | 17,400 psi (120 MPa) | 2.68 million psi (18.5 GPa) | 8,020 psi (55 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 20,560 psi (142 MPa) | 2.87 million psi (19.8 GPa) | 12,140 psi (84 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 20,900 psi (144 MPa) | 3.14 million psi (21.6 GPa) | 12,300 psi (85 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Freshly cut heartwood is generally chocolate-brown turning to a lighter brown when dry, occasionally grayish-brown, with fine lighter parenchyma stripes; sharply demarcated from whitish or yellowish sapwood. Texture coarse; grain usually straight to slightly interlocked or slightly wavy; luster medium to high and golden, often with a waxy appearance; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The wood is moderately difficult to work and resulting surfaces, especially in planing, are fair to poor due to the coarse texture and frequent grain irregularity. The wood turns well and takes a good finish if filler is first applied.
- Durability
- In laboratory evaluations, the heartwood is rated very durable in resistance to both white-rot and brown-rot fungi. Other evaluations rate the wood as moderately durable; highly resistant to attack by dry-wood termites; not resistant to marine borers.
- Uses
- Heavy construction work, boat building, flooring, furniture components, turnery, railroad crossties, and tool handles.
- Where it grows
- Uplands of the Guianas and in Pará and Amazonas in Brazil. Fairly common in parts of Brazil and French Guiana, infrequent in Surinam and Guyana.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 129–130, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for furniture with the species picker
Weigh sucupira (Diplotropis) against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.