OTHER RARE AND EXOTIC WOODS

Ebony- also known as India Ebony or Ceylon Ebony depending on its origin, is native to southern India and Sri Lanka. It is noted for its heavy black, fine-grained heartwood. It is a medium-sized evergreen, reaching 20–25 m tall. The leaves are entire, about 6–15 cm long and 3–5 cm broad. The fruit is a small berry 2 cm diameter, similar to a small persimmon. Ebony heartwood is one of the most intensely black woods known, which, combined with its very high density (it is one of the very few woods that sink in water), fine texture, and ability to polish very smoothly, has made it very valuable as an ornamental wood.

Modern uses are largely restricted to small sizes, particularly in musical instrument making, including piano and harpsichord keys, violin, oboe, guitar, and cello fingerboards, endpieces, pegs and chinrests. Traditionally, black piano and harpsichord keys were ebony, and the black pieces in chess sets were made from ebony, with rare boxwood being used for the white pieces. Modern east Midlands-style lace-making bobbins, also being small, are often made of ebony and look particularly decorative when bound with brass or silver wire. Due to its strength, many handgun grips are made of Ebony as well. Large pieces of Ebony are a rarity.

Jackfruit - is a species of tree of the mulberry family and its fruit, native to southwestern India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Sri Lanka, and possibly also east to the Malay Peninsula, though more likely an early human introduction there. It is well suited to tropical lowlands.The wood is used for the production of musical instruments in Indonesia as part of the gamelan and in the Philippines, where its soft wood can be made into the hull of a kutiyapi, a type of Philippine boat lute. It is also used to make the body of the Indian drums mridangam and kanjira. It is also widely used for manufacture of furniture.

Ironwood - (Ceylon ironwood, Indian rose chestnut or locally, Penaga Lilin or Nahar). The plant is named after the heaviness of its timber and cultivated in tropical climates for its form, foliage, and fragrant flowers. It is native to tropical Sri Lanka, Assam, southern Nepal, Indochina, and the Malay Peninsula. It is the national tree of Sri Lanka

It is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree up to 13 m tall, often buttressed at the base with a trunk up to 90 cm in diameter. It has simple, narrow, oblong, dark green leaves 7-15 cm long, with a whitish underside; the emerging young leaves are red to yellowish pink and drooping. The flowers are 4-7.5 cm diameter, with four white petals and a centre of numerous yellow stamens. The wood is very heavy, and is used for railroad ties and structural timber. Its resin is slightly poisonous, but many parts have medicinal properties.

The National Ironwood Forest is a 96 ha (238 acre) forest in Sri Lanka where Mesua ferara trees dominate the vegetation. It is said that during King Dappula IV's period (8th century AD) this forest was created and the remaining trees are the shoots of it. Hence it is considered the oldest manmade forest in Sri Lanka. According to botanists this is the only ironwood forest in the dry zone with wet zone vegetation.