Texture Browser

Botanical Name

Tectona grandis L. f. (Fam. Verbenaceae)

Trade Names

Teak, Teck

Substitution

for constructive functions: Afzelia, Afrormosia, Louro Preto, Courbaril, Iroko and Merbau; for decorative functions: Afrormosia; Boire, Amazakou

Indigenous to

South- and Southeast Asia; India, Indonesia, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Kampuchea, Vietnam, Java; cultured: Togo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Gabon, Tanzania, Benin, Malaysia, Honduras, Brazil

Characteristics

The sapwood and the heartwood are well separated. The sapwood is light yellowish grey and narrow. The heartwood is gold brown, remembers on Oak, later it turns darker on light- to dark brown when exposed to air. It is often veined from darker, nearly black veins and therefore it is very decorative. On longitudinal cut it glitters slight silky. Growth layers are visible. The pores are big and charged with phosphor-acid calcium as white substance, which appear as white veins at cross-section. The wood is straight grown and shrinks very little. When freshly cut the wood has an intensive smell, which remembers on leather. The texture is rough but straight grained. The wood is medium-heavy, firm and hard.