Pau Rosa / African Tulip

Family: Fabaceae - Order: Fabales - Class: Magnoliopsida

Scientific name: Swartzia fistuloides / Bobgunnia fistuloides

Trade name: Pau Rosa / African Tulip

Also known as Pau ferro, Oken, Kisasamba, Pao Rosa.

Origin: Equatorial Africa

Instrumental uses:
Guitar back and sides, fingerboards, bridges, head plates and bindings.

Tonal properties:

It is very similar in acoustic properties as a few of the rosewoods, even brighter and louder than Brazilian Rosewood. Very well balanced tone with great basses, mids and providing an extraordinary high frequency definition. Good separation on every single note.

Used as fingerboards and bridges will give excellent sound projection and transmission.

Grain is interlocked, sometimes also wavy, the texture is medium and very uniform.

Easy to work, glues and finishes very well.

Is dense, stiff and very resistant with an average dried weight nearly of 64 lbs/ft3 or 1030  kg/m3. 

It is native to tropical / equatorial Africa. From Cote d`Ivoire to Gabon and to the Democratic Republic of the Congo is found in the dense rain forests, in small groups.The tree reaches 23 to 30 m tall. The bole is irregular, short, sometimes with a swollen base. The trunk diameter attains 70 to 100 cm.

The sapwood is yellowish white, it has a thickness of 5 cm. The heartwood is pink brown, striped with red-brown bands, it is clearly demarcated.

CITES status is unrestricted. Is reported on the IUCN Red 2.3 List as Endangered.