Swietenia

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Swietenia

Swietenia sp., probably Swietenia macrophylla, planted in Hawaii

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Sapindales
Family:	Meliaceae
Genus:	Swietenia

Species

See text.

Swietenia is a genus of trees in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It occurs in the Neotropics, from southern Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America south to Bolivia. It is usually taken to consist of three species, geographically separated. They are medium-sized to large trees growing to 20-45 m tall, and up to 2 m trunk diameter. The leaves are 10-30 cm long, pinnate, with 3-6 pairs of leaflets, the terminal leaflet absent; each leaflet is 5-15 cm long. The leaves are deciduous to semi-evergreen, falling shortly before the new foliage grows. The flowers are produced in loose inflorescences, each flower small, with five white to greenish-yellowish petals. The fruit is a pear-shaped five-valved capsule 8-20 cm long, containing numerous winged seeds about 5-9 cm long.

Species

Swietenia humilis - Pacific Coast Mahogany. Pacific coast of Central America and Mexico.
Swietenia macrophylla - Honduras Mahogany. Atlantic coast of Central America, South America south to Bolivia.
Swietenia mahagoni - West Indian Mahogany. Caribbean, southern Florida.

The three species are poorly defined biologically, in part because they hybridise freely.

[edit] Uses

The genus is famed as the supplier of mahogany, at first yielded by Swietenia mahagoni, a Caribbean species, which has almost been exterminated as a tree, surviving in the wild mostly as a shrub. These days almost all mahogany is yielded by the mainland species, Swietenia macrophylla.

Note that a somewhat comparable wood is yielded by the related African genus Khaya. This is traded as African mahogany, and is the only other wood widely accepted as a mahogany.

S. mahagoni is widely cultivated as an ornamental tree in southern Florida, and similarly S. macrophylla in Hawaii.

[edit] CITES

All species of Swietenia are CITES-listed. Swietenia timber that crosses a border needs its paperwork in order. International environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and Rainforest Action Network have focused on Swietenia so as to expose illegal traffic in the wood, notably from Brazil.