Zebra wood
Microberlinia brazzavillensis

Where does it grow?
This characteristic tree grows mostly in West Africa, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, in tropical lowland rain forests.

Look
In section to quarters the heartwood is of light gold yellow colour and narrow regular and even dark brown to nearly black graining which forms the characteristic zebra style. In tangential section or on peeled surface of veener a very strong contrast drawing shines. The funiculus placing is alternately rotary or wavy and texture is rougher with shining surface. Look as a whole is very decorative.

Qualities
The zebrano compactness is about 740kg/m3 when dried. In process of usage it is form stabile. This hard and heavy wood is very valued in all categories of strength and is mostly known because of its high rigidity. It is not suitable for bending. Manual and mechanical working are possible, but gluing needs a special care. Zebrano is often used in production of cut decorative veeners, it is used for tarsia and  decoration of furniture. In massif it is used for nicely turned products.