Swietenia mahagoni (L.) Jacq. - syn. Cedrela mahagoni L. - Meliaceae \\
West Indian mahogany, true mahogany, **Westindisches Mahagoni**

Endangered deciduous or evergreen tree, up to 35m tall, native to the Caribbean and Florida, also cultivated (China, India, Indonesia eg.); bark scalelike, reddish; leaves alternate ca.35cm long, petiolate, leaflets 8-12, thin, glabrous, ovate to lanceolate, 10-16cm long; axillary thyrses; flowers small, petals greenish white, staminal tube subcylindric, glabrous, anthers 10; capsule brown, ovoid, ca.8 cm in diam., many seeded; seeds apically winged, ca. 7cm including wing. \\
[[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=220013153]]

The wood has been used to construct fine furniture for hundreds of years. Properly finished and polished, mahogany has a deep rich red color. Mahogany is used to make musical instruments, especially guitar parts. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swietenia_mahagoni]]

The highly fragrant flowers open shortly after twilight. They fill the air of the surrounding with a delicate scent, reminiscent of orange flowers slightly modified in direction of Magnolia champaca. Main components of the scent are (E)-ocimene (64.5%) and (Z)-ocimene (16.5%), forming an orange flower accord with indole (0.2%), 2-aminobenzaldehyde (0.3%), and methyl anthranilate (0.6%), twisted in champaca direction with β-ionone (0.02%), β-cyclocitral (0.2%), and safranal (0.03%). \\
[Scent of a vanishing flora, Roman Kaiser, 2011, 61-62 and 419]

{{:swietania_mahagoni.jpg?500}} \\
Sargent,C.S., The Silva of North America, vol.1 t.43 (1891) [C.E.Faxon] \\
[[http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=988638]]

{{:mahagoniflowers.jpg?800}} \\
Swietania mahagoni flowers, Western Ghats, India [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Swietenia_mahagoni?uselang=de#/media/File:Swietenia_mahagoni_L..jpg|wikimedia commons]] , Author: Lalithamba, [[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/|CC-BY 2.0]]