''Cedrela odorata'' is a commercially important species of tree in the

chinaberry ''Melia azedarach'', commonly known as the chinaberry tree, pride of India, bead-tree, Cape lilac, syringa berrytree, Persian lilac, Indian lilac, or white cedar, is a species of deciduous tree in the mahogany family, Meliaceae, that is native ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Meliaceae Meliaceae, the mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs (and a few herbaceous plants, mangroves) in the order Sapindales. They are characterised by alternate, usually pinnate leaves without stipules, and by syncar ...

, commonly known as Spanish cedar or Cuban cedar; it is also known as cedro in Spanish.

Classification

The genus ''

Cedrela ''Cedrela'' is a genus of several species in the mahogany family, Meliaceae. They are evergreen or dry-season deciduous trees with pinnate leaves, native to the tropical and subtropical New World, from southern Mexico south to northern Argen ...

'' has undergone two major systematic revisions since 1960. The most recent revision reduced the number of species in the genus to seven (Styles, 1981). The common cedro, ''Cedrela odorata'' L., embraces 28 other synonyms, including ''C. mexicana'' M. J. Roem. The taxon "''C. angustifolia''," a very vigorous type now in demand because of its apparent resistance to the shootborer, was left in an indeterminate status due to insufficient herbarium material. The result is that ''C. odorata'' as now constituted is a species showing a high degree of population variation.

Distribution and habitat

Cedro is a tree of the New World tropics, appearing in forests of moist and seasonally dry subtropical or tropical life zones (24) from latitude 26°N on the Pacific coast of Mexico, throughout Central America and the Caribbean, to the lowlands and foothills of most of South America up to altitude, finding its southern limit at about latitude 28°S in Argentina. It has become a troublesome invasive species in the Galapagos Islands. Cedro is always found naturally on well-drained soils, often but not exclusively on

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

; it tolerates a long dry season but does not flourish in areas of rainfall greater than about or on sites with heavy or waterlogged soils. Individual trees are generally scattered in mixed semi-evergreen or semi-deciduous forests dominated by other species.

Mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus '' Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: U ...

, a close relative, is often found with cedro and both suffer damage from the same pest, the mahogany shootborer (''

Hypsipyla grandella ''Hypsipyla grandella'' is a moth of the family Pyralidae. It is found in southern Florida (United States), most of the West Indies, Sinaloa and southward in Mexico, Central America, South America except Chile and in Mauritius. The larvae caus ...

'').

Description

The tree is

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is ...

semi-

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

ranging in height from . The trunk has a thick grey–brown bark, with longitudinal irregular grain. Pinnately compound leaves, grouped towards the end of the branches, long, with pairs of scythe-shaped leaflets, lanceolate to oblong, × with the base obliquely truncated and asymmetric.

Uses

''Cedrela odorata'' is the most commercially important and widely distributed species in the genus ''Cedrela''. Known as Spanish cedar in English commerce, the aromatic wood is in high demand in the American tropics because it is naturally

termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes ( eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blat ...

- and rot-resistant. An attractive, moderately lightweight wood (specific gravity 0.4), its primary use is in household articles used to store clothing. Cedro

heartwood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

contains an aromatic and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pa ...

-repelling

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on nat ...

that is the source of its popular name, Spanish-cedar (it resembles the aroma of the unrelated true cedars (''

Cedrus ''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, is a genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae (subfamily Abietoideae). They are native to the mountains of the western Himalayas and the Mediterranean region, occurring at altitudes of 1,500 ...

'' spp.) Cedro works easily and makes excellent

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

and veneer and would be more widely used if it could be successfully

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

grown. This plant is often used for

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

production (

beekeeping Beekeeping (or apiculture) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made beehives. Honey bees in the genus ''Apis (insect), Apis'' are the most-commonly-kept species but other honey-producing bees such as ''Melipona'' stingless bees ar ...

) and humidor construction. It is occasionally used for tops or veneers on some kinds of

electric guitars An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

. The wood is the traditional choice for making the neck of

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura a ...

and

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

s.Romanillos, J.L. (2014) ''Making A Spanish Guitar''

References

External links