Lignum vitae () is a

wood 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 ...

, also called guayacan or guaiacum, and in parts of Europe known as Pockholz or pokhout, from trees of the genus ''

Guaiacum ''Guaiacum'' (''OED'' 2nd edition, 1989.Entry "guaiacum"
in
strength,

toughness In materials science and metallurgy, toughness is the ability of a material to absorb energy and plastically deform without fracturing.density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematicall ...

. It is also the national tree of

the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...

, and the

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

n national flower. The wood is obtained chiefly from ''

Guaiacum officinale ''Guaiacum officinale'', commonly known as roughbark lignum-vitae, guaiacwood or gaïacwood, is a species of tree in the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae, that is native to the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America. Description This s ...

'' and ''

Guaiacum sanctum ''Guaiacum sanctum'', commonly known as holywood, lignum vitae or holywood lignum-vitae, is a species of flowering plant in the creosote bush family, Zygophyllaceae. It is native to tropical America, from Mexico through Central America, Florida, ...

'', both small, slow-growing trees. All species of the genus ''Guaiacum'' are now listed in Appendix II of

CITES CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of intern ...

(the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as potentially

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

. ''G. sanctum'' is listed as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

Red List. Demand for the wood has been reduced by modern materials science, which has led to

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductili ...

s and

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

s that can take lignum vitae's place.

Name

''Lignum vitae'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

for "wood of life". The plant derives its name from its medicinal uses; lignum vitae resin has been used to treat a variety of medical conditions from

cough A cough is a sudden expulsion of air through the large breathing passages that can help clear them of fluids, irritants, foreign particles and microbes. As a protective reflex, coughing can be repetitive with the cough reflex following three ph ...

s to

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...

, and chips of the wood can also be used to brew a tea. Other names for lignum vitae include palo santo (Spanish for "holy wood"), Aura palo santo and "bastard greenheart" (not to be confused with true greenheart '' Chlorocardium rodiei'', a popular wood in shipbuilding, cabinetry, and woodturning but a completely different timber). Lignum vitae is also one of the numerous hard, dense woods loosely referred to as "

ironwood Ironwood is a common name for many woods or plants that have a reputation for hardness, or specifically a wood density that is heavier than water (approximately 1000 kg/m3, or 62 pounds per cubic foot), although usage of the name ironwood in ...

Description

Wood products

Lignum vitae is hard and durable, and is also the densest wood traded (average dried density: ~79 lbs/ft³ or ~1,260 kg/m³); it will easily sink in water. On the Janka scale of hardness, which measures hardness of woods, lignum vitae ranks highest of the trade woods, with a Janka hardness of 4,500 lbf (compared with Olneya at 3,260 lbf, African blackwood at 2,940 lbf,

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mex ...

at 1,820 lbf, red oak at 1,290 lbf, yellow pine at 690 lbf, and

Balsa ''Ochroma pyramidale'', commonly known as the balsa tree, is a large, fast-growing tree native to the Americas. It is the sole member of the genus ''Ochroma''. The tree is famous for its wide usage in woodworking, with the name ''balsa'' being ...

at 100 lbf). The densest of all woods is ''

Allocasuarina luehmannii ''Allocasuarina luehmannii'' (buloke or bull-oak) is a species of ironwood tree native to Australia and its wood is the hardest commercially available as measured by the Janka Hardness Scale. Description The evergreen tree typically grows ...

''. Krugiodendron typically has a higher density, among many other woods that vary by sample. Various other hardwoods may also be called lignum vitae and should not be confused with it. The best-known come from '' Bulnesia arborea'' and '' Bulnesia sarmientoi'' (in the same

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classifica ...

as ''Guaiacum'') and are known as

verawood ''Bulnesia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae. The wood of some – particularly '' B. arborea'' and '' B. sarmientoi'' – is traded as verawood (colloquially "vera") or ''" lignum vitae"''. They are ...

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

lignum vitae; they are somewhat similar in appearance and working qualities as genuine lignum vitae. Some hardwoods from

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologic ...

(e.g., ''

Vitex lignum-vitae ''Vitex lignum-vitae'', known in Australia as yellow hollywood or " lignum-vitae" (also used for other species), is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia. The natural range of distribution is in dry, sub-tropical or tropical rainforest from t ...

'' and some species of ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus nam ...

'' and ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as ...

'') are also referred to as lignum vitae.

Description

The tree is slow-growing and relatively small in stature, even when mature and old. It bears small, purplish-blue flowers which result in paired orange

dehiscent Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part; structures that op ...

fruits. The bark is mottled.

Uses

Due to the density of the wood,

cricket bails Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, in particular "heavy bails" used in windy conditions, are sometimes made of lignum vitae. It is also sometimes used to make lawn bowls, croquet mallets, and skittles balls. The wood also has seen widespread historical usage in mortars and pestles and for wood carvers' mallets. It was the traditional wood used for the British police truncheon until recently, due to its density (and strength), combined with the relative softness of wood compared to metal, thereby tending to bruise or stun rather than simply cut the skin. The

belaying pin Properly securing a line to a belaying pin starts by leading the line under and behind the base of the pin to begin the figure-8 pattern left, Lines coiled and secured by belaying pins A belaying pin is a solid metal or wooden device used on tr ...

s and deadeyes aboard USS ''Constitution'' and many other sailing ships were made from lignum vitae. Due to its density and natural oils, they rarely require replacement, despite the severity of typical marine weathering conditions, and also resisted jamming in their mortise holes. The sheaves of blocks on sailing vessels were made of lignum vitae until the introduction of modern synthetics. Due to lignum vitae's toughness, it can also be used as a

lap A lap is a surface (usually horizontal) created between the knee and hips of a biped when it is in a seated or lying down position. The lap of a parent or loved one is seen as a physically and psychologically comfortable place for a child to s ...

in the process of cutting gems. The wood is covered with powdered industrial diamond, attached to a spindle, and used to smooth rough surfaces of gems. Master clockmaker

John Harrison John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea. Harrison's solution revo ...

used lignum vitae in the bearings and gears of his

pendulum clock A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element. The advantage of a pendulum for timekeeping is that it is a harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dependent on i ...

s and his first three

marine chronometer A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or in the mode ...

s (all of which were large clocks rather than watches), since the wood is self-lubricating. The use of lignum vitae eliminates the need for horological

lubricating oil A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, t ...

; 18th-century horological oil would become viscous and reduce the accuracy of a timepiece under unfavourable conditions (including those that prevail at sea). For the same reason it was widely used in water-lubricated shaft bearings for ships and hydro-electric power plants, and in the stern-tube bearings of ship propeller shafts until the 1960s saw the introduction of sealed white metal bearings. According to the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association website, the shaft bearings on the WWII submarine were made of this wood. The aft main shaft strut bearings for , the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, were composed of this wood. Also, the bearings in the original 1920s turbines of the Conowingo hydroelectric plant on the lower

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

were made from lignum vitae. The shaft bearings on the horizontal turbines at the Pointe du Bois generating station in Manitoba are made from lignum vitae. Other hydroelectric plant turbine bearings, many of them still in service, were fabricated with lignum vitae and are too numerous to list here. The United Railroads of San Francisco (an ancestor of the San Francisco Municipal Railway) began installing insulators made of composite materials to support the heavy 600-volt DC feeder wires for their trolley system in 1904. These lines were damaged, along with most everything else, during the 1906 earthquake and the fires that followed. Rebuilding the trolley system and expanding it to replace cable car routes destroyed in the quake created a huge demand for insulators, a demand manufacturers further east were unable to meet. The properties of lignum vitae, namely its ability to withstand high stress (from heavy cables on long spans and the strain of lines rounding corners) and high temperature (due to the feeder cables becoming very hot during peak operating hours), and its ready availability from the holds of the ships in the harbor (used as dunnage and ballast) made it an ideal 'temporary' solution. Many remained into service well into the 1970s, with the last few pieces replaced in the 2000s in favor of an underground feeder system. It was also used extensively in the manufacture of British Railways Mark 1 Rolling Stock, as a "bump stop" in the bogies (the frame that carries the wheels).

Lore

Pioneering calypsonian/ vaudevillian Sam Manning recorded a song titled "Lignum Vitae" in the 1920s. His reference was doubly salacious, referring to both the bark tea's

contraceptive Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...

qualities and the phallic symbolism of the hard wood.

Benvenuto Cellini Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiograph ...

recounts using lignum vitae (presumably in tea form) to cure himself of a

venereal disease Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and ora ...

(the so-called "French Pox", presumably Syphilis). According to

T. H. White Terence Hanbury "Tim" White (29 May 1906 – 17 January 1964) was an English writer best known for his Arthurian novels, published together in 1958 as ''The Once and Future King''. One of his most memorable is the first of the series, '' The S ...

's version of the

King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as ...

story ''

The Once and Future King ''The Once and Future King'' is a collection of fantasy novels by T. H. White about the legend of King Arthur. It is loosely based upon the 1485 work ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' by Sir Thomas Malory. It was first published in 1958 as a collection o ...

'', lignum vitae, from which the wand of

Merlin Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and leg ...

is made, has magical powers. Gabriel García Márquez's novel '' Love in the Time of Cholera'' includes a bathtub made of this wood in one of the main characters' homes. His novel ''

Chronicle of a Death Foretold ''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' ( es, Crónica de una muerte anunciada) is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981. It tells, in the form of a pseudo- journalistic reconstruction, the story of the murder of Santiago Nasar by ...

'' also refers to the use of this wood in making a cane for the blind Poncio Vicario. American folksinger

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...

fashioned the neck of his trademark

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

from lignum vitae. In

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

' novel ''

Bleak House ''Bleak House'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The novel has many characters and several sub-plots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and ...

'', one of the characters, Matthew Bagnet is referred to as lignum vitae, "... in compliment to the extreme hardness and toughness of his physiognomy." In

Philip Pullman Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. His books include the fantasy trilogy '' His Dark Materials'' and '' The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'', a fictionalised biography of Jesus. In 2008, ''T ...

's novel,

The Secret Commonwealth ''The Secret Commonwealth'' is a 2019 fantasy novel by Philip Pullman, the second volume of his planned trilogy '' The Book of Dust''. The story is set twenty years or so after the events of '' La Belle Sauvage'' and ten years after the conclus ...

, the heroine Lyra Belacqua carries a truncheon made from lignum vitae as a weapon. Image:LignumVitaePlane.jpg, A

hand plane A hand plane is a tool for shaping wood using muscle power to force the cutting blade over the wood surface. Some rotary power planers are motorized power tools used for the same types of larger tasks, but are unsuitable for fine-scale planing, ...

with a lignum vitae sole, likely ''Bulnesia'', and a pearwood body Image:PanamaRR Rail Spike Tie.jpg, Example of the original construction 53 lb/yd (26 kg/m) inverted "U" rail aka "Bridge" rail, "screw" spike, and lignum vitae

tie Tie has two principal meanings: * Tie (draw), a finish to a competition with identical results, particularly sports * Necktie, a long piece of cloth worn around the neck or shoulders Tie or TIE may also refer to: Engineering and technology * ...

used to build the Panama Railroad from 1851 to 1855.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lignum Vitae Wood Guaiacum

Name

Description

Wood products

Description

Uses

Lore

See also

References