ANIGRE
BOTANICAL NAME: Pouteria spp. including P. altissima, P. robusta, and P. superba of the family Sapotaceae. Formerly these were in the genus Aningeria with each having the same specific epithet.

COMMON NAMES: anegre, aniegre, aningeria, aningeria blanc, aningre, aningueri blanc, aninguerie, asamfona, grogoli, kali (Angolla), kararo, landojan, landosan (Nigeria), m'boul, mukalati, mukali, mukanga, mukangu, muna (Kenya), mutoke (Uganda), n'kali, nkalate, nkalati, osan, tanganika, tanganyika nuss, tutu,

TYPE: hardwood

COLOR: The heartwood is generally described as creamy yellow to pale pink to reddish-brown, darkening slightly upon exposure, and not sharply demarcated from the sapwood which is also pale pink to reddish-brown. In my own experience, I have found the lumber to be creamy off-white, sometimes with some pinkish tinge, and the veneer to be varying shades of yellow. Blue stain is common.

GRAIN: straight to wavy. Fiddleback anegre is common, especially in veneer, as are various forms of mottling ranging from sharp razor mottle to vague block mottle. Bee's wing figure is sometimes advertised, but I find this generally to be just a tight mottle, not really true bee's wing. Bird's eye figure is also found occasionally.

TEXTURE: There is no consensus, with reports ranging from fine to medium to coarse. My experience is medium, verging on fine, not verging on coarse, and with a medium luster, although sometimes the veneer has a high luster.

PROPERTIES / WORKABILITY: It works easily with both hand and machine tools, although some species are silicious and have a blunting effect on cutters, especially in planing and sometimes in boring (it may chip out). It has good nailing, screwing, and gluing characteristics. Turns and carves reasonably well.

DURABILITY: The wood is susceptible to various insects, termites, and fungus attack, and liable to blue stain. Both heartwood and sapwood are perishible, but moderately permeable and respond well to preservative treatment. Mechanical durability is not good enough to make this an acceptable flooring material.

FINISH: takes stains and finishes quite well and can be polished to a moderate natural shine

STABILITY: movement in service is low

BENDING: medium bending characteristics

ODOR: similar to that of cedar and without any distinctive taste.

SOURCES: Central and tropical Africa, including Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea bissau, Ivory coast, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra leone, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, Zaire, and Zambia

USES: I have seen fiddleback anegre architechtural panals in numerous high end hotels and some office buildings. It has a plethora of other uses, including: bedroom suites, bent parts, boat building, boxes and crates, building construction, building materials, cabin construction, cabinetmaking, canoes, chairs, chests, concealed parts (furniture), construction, core stock, decorative plywood, decorative veneer, desks, dining-room furniture, domestic flooring, dowell pins, dowells, drawer sides, drum sticks, excelsior, factory construction, factory flooring, figured veneer, fine furniture, floor lamps, flooring, furniture, furniture components, furniture squares or stock, general carpentry, hatracks, heavy construction, joinery, kitchen cabinets, lifeboats, light construction, living-room suites, matches, millwork, mine timbers, musical instruments, office furniture, organ pipes, parquet flooring, piano keys, pianos, plain veneer, plywood, posts, pulp and paper products, radio - stereo - tv cabinets, railroad ties, rustic furniture, shipbuilding, sounding boards, stools, structural plywood, sub-flooring, tables, turnery, utility furniture, utility plywood, vehicle parts, veneer, violin, violin bows, wardrobes and xylophones.

TREE: trunk diameters of 3 to 4 feet, height to 180 feet, clear cylindrical bole about 85 feet, above symmetrical buttresses

WEIGHT: 31 lto 36 pounds per cubic foot

DRYING: reported to dry well and rapidly, with little degrade but some tendancy to acquite blue stain in the inital stages of drying. Rapid extraction, conversion and drying is recommended

AVAILABILITY: readily available, especially in veneer

COST: moderate in lumber, veneer is inexpensive