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KATALOX / WAMARA / QUEENWOOD

Given the ease with which these three woods can be confused based on face grain and density, plus the fact that few people (and likely NO wood vendors) bother to do an end grain analysis even if they know how to do it, plus the fact that they ALL sometimes use the name wamara (among others), it is not surprising that they are often confused.

Although wamara is the common name that is shared among all three species, katalox is by far the most available. Wamara is rarely seen but you may run across it. Queenwood is quite obscure and you are not likely to find it for sale.

All three are generally purple or purplish in color with yellowish sapwood and are all dense/heavy. They may contain some red and even sometime some bright red or bright purple especially when freshly milled.

Here are the end grain distinctions:



katalox / Swartzia cubensis

• pore size: medium (clearly larger than those of wamara, about the same size as queenwood)
• pore density: fairly sparse (generally slightly more dense than queenwood, clearly more sparse than wamara)
• pore multiples: very sparse
• parenchyma at/near the pores: sometimes winged aliform, sometimes just vasicentric.
• parenchyma away from the pores: somewhat sparse banded / diffuse-in-aggregate or winged aliform. When it does have a lot of banded parenchyma (or extended diffuse-in-aggregate), the bands are not as densely packed as those in queenwood.

wamara / Swartzia benthamiana

• pore size: small (generally the smallest of the three)
• pore density: dense (by far the most dense of the three)
• pore multiples: occasional
• parenchyma at/near the pores: thin vasicentric
• parenchyma away from the pores: occasional banded or diffuse in aggregate. The bands can be dense but only in sparse groupings, unlike queenwood in which the banding is present throughout.

queenwood / Swartzia leiocalycina

• pore size: medium to large (generally larger than katalox and generally much larger than wamara)
• pore density: very sparse (clearly the sparsest of the three)
• pore multiples: occasional
• parenchyma at/near the pores: obvious vasicentric
• parenchyma away from the pores :a plethora of fairly dense banded and diffuse-in-aggregate. The plethora of banded parenchyma is sometimes present in katalox as well, but with less density of bands.