Pseudoplatanus22 [he/him]@hexbear.net

Pseudoplatanus22 [he/him]@hexbear.net

Mahogany is a tropical hardwood used in the manufacture of furniture and musical instruments.

Mahogany in its truest sense comes from trees from the genus Swietenia, itself containing three species which are all native to the Americas. Of these, the most commonly used for timber is the South American Swietenia macrophylla, or Big Leaf Mahogany, although the other two species in this genus (S. humilis from Central America and S. mahogani from the Southern United States and Caribbean) are sometimes considered to be genetically indistinct, readily hybridising with one another and being defined mostly by geographical distribution.

Mahogany is especially well suited to musical instrument manufacturing due to its pleasing deep red finish, its pronounced low and low-mid frequencies, and its tendency to sound better with age. Of the large scale guitar manufacturers using mahogany, perhaps the most famous is Gibson, whose Les Paul and SG models have been made from mahogany since the 1950s.

Along with its use as a timber tree, mahogany also has a history of medicinal use. Its seeds (known as Sky Fruits) are reported as having antimutagenic, antitumor, and anti-inflammatory traits, and have been used to treat hypertension, diabetes, and malaria by people across its introduced range.

All three true mahoganies are threatened in their native ranges by habitat degradation caused by agriculture, and commercial overharvesting; this has led to the international trade of American-grown mahogany being heavily restricted (in theory) by CITES, and has led to large scale planting in South-East Asia. However, due to the low ages of most planted specimens, illegal harvesting of old-growth stands continues unabated.

Despite being threatened in its native range, it has proved hardy in the Philippines where it is planted for timber. It is facing calls for its control and removal from native habitats there due to its ability to spread quickly and suppress the growth of native vegetation; this is exacerbated by its allelopathic leaf litter, which along with blanketing the forest floor with shade, secretes chemicals that supress the growth of other plants, much like the leaf litter of the European Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus).

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