Mahogany
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
ma-hog'a-ny, a large forest tree of the West Indies and Central America . There is but a single species. The leaf resembles that of the ash tree. The flowers are small and five-parted. They are borne in panicles. The fruit is a pear-shaped woody capsule packed with winged seeds. The tree is prized chiefly for lumber. Trees from Central America afford boards four feet wide. The wood is close-grained, free from shakes, and has a rich, dark red color. To these desirable qualities may be added freedom from a tendency to warp. The wood is prized by cabinetmakers. Solid mahogany was at one time considered the most expensive and valuable furniture made. The wood is now cut usually into thin sheets which are glued as veneer on frames, panels, and the like. The best lumber is cut green and is conveyed by ship to the purchasing countries, as, if allowed to float in sea water for any length of time, the logs are likely to be attacked by marine borers. Aside from expense, mahogany is desirable wood for inside finishing work. It is considered a second-class wood for shipbuilding purposes. Immense quantities of mahogany lumber have been exported to Great Britain , France, Germany, and the United States , but the relative demand has fallen off of late owing to the introduction of metal furniture and a return to local woods of a lighter color. The cultivation of mahogany has been introduced into the northwest provinces of India. See Logwood
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 statement that "there is but a single species" no longer holds: botanists recognise three species of Swietenia, and the trade has shifted decisively from the Caribbean tree the entry describes to big-leaf mahogany, S. macrophylla, of the mainland American tropics, after the old Cuban and Jamaican stands were logged out. The 1910 hope that demand was falling off proved wrong; instead the pressure grew heavy enough that all three species are now regulated under CITES, big-leaf mahogany being added to Appendix II in 2003, and the United States extended its Lacey Act in 2008 to bar illegally harvested timber. The entry's note that cultivation had been "introduced into the northwest provinces of India" was a hint of what came next: plantation mahogany is now grown across South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with Fiji among the largest producers. Meanwhile the name has spread far beyond the genus, so that "African mahogany" (Khaya) and "Philippine mahogany" (Shorea) are sold as mahogany though neither is botanically related.
Written for this edition, 2026.