Ebony (disambiguation)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ebony can refer to:

• Originally, the tree species Ebony (Diospyros ebenum) and the black wood derived from it.
• In botany, the name is also applied to a number of other related species in the genus Diospyros, particularly those which also have black wood, but also some that have pale-streaked wood:
  • African Ebony Diospyros crassiflora
  • Black Ebony Diospyros dendo
  • Coromandel Ebony Diospyros melanoxylon
  • East Indian Ebony Diospyros inclusa
  • Macassar Ebony Diospyros celebica
  • Diospyros ebenaster
  • Diospyros mindanaensis
  • Diospyros montana
  • Diospyros piscatoria
  • Diospyros pyrrhocarpa
  • Diospyros quaesita
• On the island of St Helena it is the vernacular name of Trochetiopsis ebenus (the St Helena ebony), where the dark coloured wood is used for local inlay work.
• In the timber trade, the name has also been mis-applied to a number of other unrelated black-coloured woods
• Ebony magazine
• Ebony, Prince Lumen's battle spider in Spider Riders
• Ebony White is the sidekick of comics character The Spirit
• Ebony and Ivory

[edit] See also

• African Blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) is often mistaken for Ebony as it is a dense fine grained black wood, but Ebony is matte black as opposed to African Blackwood which has a reflective translucent quality in its grain. Both timbers are decorative and valuable and used in musical instruments; African Blackwood in clarinets and similar woodwind instruments because of its tonal quality and Ebony for piano keys, violin finger boards, tuning pegs and chinrests and in some guitar fretboards because of its tonal qualities and resistance to wear.