open main page for all woods          open page 2 for articles



KURUGUAY

Guibourtia chodatiana and Guibourtia hymenaefolia

Guibourtia chodatianal and Guibourtia hymenaefolia of the family Fabaceae (syn. Leguminosae) the legume, pea, or bean family. In the flooring industry, this wood is given the totally meaningless name "patagonian cherry". It is not related to cherry, and although it MAY come from Patagonia, I wouldn't count on it, given the utterly unreliable nature of the flooring industry's naming conventions.

A note about botanical name conflicts:

• Guibourtia hymenaeifolia --- GRIN database uses this spelling and says that Guibourtia chodatiana is just a synonym of it
• Guibourtia hymenaefolia --- The Plant List uses this spelling and says that Guibourtia hymenaeifolia is a synonym AND that Guibourtia chodatiana is NOT a synonym but an accepted name in its own right. Since I use The Plant List, that's the usage on this site.

A alternate common name that is widely used in the USA is tiete rosewood, and I have also seen it (rarely) called curunai and kurunai.

my samples: NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K) colors will vary under other lighting conditions

both sides of a sample plank of kuruguay / Guibourtia chodatiana --- HUGE enlargements are present. Although this piece has a very light curl, it was not sold as curly (nor should it have been given how light the curl is).


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


sample plank and end grain sold to me as curunai / Guibourtia chodatiana


end grain END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of cojoba (aka kuruguay) / Guibourtia hymenaefolia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


flooring sample plank and end grain, presumably Guibourtia chodatiana


end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above


plank, presumably Guibourtia chodatiana


smaller plank (and end grain) cut from the larger plank directly above and sanded


end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above


plank and end grain, presumably Guibourtia chodatiana --- this one was sent to me by Chitswood for ID and I didn't get it. Chit later ID'd it as "tiete rosewood", which is an alternate common name and once he did, I saw that he was correct.


end grain closeup of the piece directly above


two planks and a closeup, presumably Guibourtia chodatiana


plank and end grain


end grain closeup of the piece directly above


flooring sample and end grain, presumably Guibourtia chodatiana. In typical flooring company style, this wood is called by a name that is totally unrelated to the wood and is in fact completely misleading. Namely, it is listed as "Patagonian cherry". The relatively orange tint of this piece and the relatively purple tint of the sample below, are correctly captured here and not an effect of image color correction.


end grain closeup of the piece directly above


flooring sample and end grain (also listed as "Patagonian cherry"), presumably Guibourtia chodatiana


end grain closeup of the piece directly above

web pics:

wet and dry planks


plank sold as tiete rosewood


planks listed as kuruguay


planks listed as curunai and I note that the 1st pic is exactly the a rotated view of the first pic in the set of planks directly above, listed as kuruguay. Another example of someone lifting a pic from web site and putting it on another with a different name. I believe that THIS pic is the original and the "kuruguay" version is the rotated copy.


planks --- although I found these pics on unrelated web sites, they are actually the same image, it's just that the 2nd one is a cropped, rotated version of the first one


flooring


flooring listed as "Patagonian rosewood" a bullshit made-up name from the flooring industry


flooring listed as Tiete rosewood