Australian rosewood - Acacia

Australian rosewood introduction:

Chinese name: Acacia

Latin name: Acacia sp.

Family name: Mimosaceae Acacia

Australian rosewood is about 15-35cm in diameter and more than 10m in length

Macroscopic structural characteristics of wood:

The wood is diffuse-porous, with the heartwood yellowish-brown to reddish-brown in color, often with black or dark brown stripes, clearly distinguishable from the heartwood; the sapwood is light white, with slightly more pores, slightly small to medium, appearing as white dots to the naked eye; the axial parenchyma is obvious under a magnifying glass, usually in the form of annular bundles; the wood rays are sparse to medium, extremely fine to very fine, and obvious under a magnifying glass.

Australian rosewood sample Australian rosewood macroscopic cross section

Wood microstructural characteristics

Vessels are oval or circular in cross section, with simple pores, short-diameter rows of multiple pores, and rarely clusters of pores. Gum or sediment is present within the vessels, and the axial parenchyma is annular, bundled, or wing-like, rarely clustered or wing-bounded. Wood fiber walls are thick or thin, and rays are partially superimposed. Ray tissue is characterized by few single-row rays and multiple-row rays 2-4 cells wide. Ray tissue is of Type II or Type III, and no crystals are observed.

Australian rosewood microscopic cross section Rosewood microscopic tangential section

Australian rosewood characteristics:

High yield rate: the wood is straight without bending, the heartwood is large and the sapwood is small. The sapwood is about 1CM wide. The heartwood has no worm holes, rot, cracks or bursts, and the yield rate is as high as 85%.

Wood stability: shrinkage, radial shrinkage is 1%, tangential shrinkage is 1.8%, radial shrinkage of hedgehog rosewood is 3.5%, tangential shrinkage is 7.4%.

The material is hard: high strength and hardness, the wood is resistant to decay and termites, and can resist bacteria and insect damage. The wood is heavy and has a density of up to 0.91-1.05g/cm3.

Slightly textured: The heartwood is yellowish brown to reddish brown in color, with a strong luster and a slight aroma. The texture is straight, with a sense of layering and modernity of light and dark colors.

High cost-effectiveness: there is inventory, sufficient resources, and stable price of about 4,000 yuan/ton. It is not included in the CITES Appendix or the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species and can be traded on a long-term basis.

Australian rosewood market prospects:

Acacia imported from Australia is commonly known in the market as "Australian Rosewood," also known as "Golden Wattle," and also known as Lance Wood in English. Australia has a rich variety of acacia species, with the main traded species including Acacia shirleyii and Acacia doratoxylon.

At the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2016, all Dalbergia species and Rosewood erinaceus were listed in Appendix II to the Endangered Species List. This made the trade of these species more difficult, causing a sudden increase in the price of various rosewood raw materials. Many rosewood manufacturers have been looking for substitutes for rosewood and dark precious hardwoods. Australian rosewood has become a new rosewood substitute with its "high yield, hard material, and high cost-effectiveness".

At present, it is the backbone of solid wood furniture, decoration, flooring, etc., and it is believed that it will play a leading role in the future application of solid wood furniture.