USDA Forest Service
Forest Products Laboratory
One Gifford Pinchot Drive
Madison, WI 53705-2398
(608) 231-9200

Wood Technical Fact Sheet

 Daniellia ogea

and D. thurifera

Ogea

Family: Leguminosae

Other Common Names: Ehyedua, Shedua (Ghana), Oziya, Daniellia (Nigeria), Fara (Ivory Coast), Nsou (Cameroon), Faro (France), Incenso (Portuguese Guinea).

Distribution: West Africa, particularly common in the rain forest of southern Nigeria.

The Tree: Reaches a height of 100 to 150 ft or more; boles straight, clear, cylindrical 50 to 100 ft in length; trunk diameters 4 to 7 ft usually unbuttressed.

The Wood:

General Characteristics: Heartwood pale pinkish to reddish brown with occasional darker streaks; sapwood distinct, whitish to straw colored, 4 to 7 in. wide. Texture rather coarse; grain shallowly interlocked; lustrous; may be somewhat gummy.

Weight: Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) about 0.40; air-dry density 31 pcf.

Mechanical Properties: (2-cm standard)

Moisture content Bending strength Modulus of elasticity Maximum crushing strength

(%) (Psi) (1,000 psi) (Psi)

12% (9) 11,800 1,320 6,030

12% (44) 9,650 1,180 5,400

Janka side hardness 710 lb for dry material. Amsler toughness 116 in.-lb at 12% moisture content (2-cm specimen)

Drying and Shrinkage: Dries fairly rapidly with only slight warping and collapse in thick material. Kiln schedule T1 0-D5S is suggested for 4/4 stock and T8-D4S for 8/4. Shrinkage green to ovendry: radial 3.0%; tangential 9.0%; volumetric 11.7%. Movement in service is rated as medium.

Working Properties: Works easily with hand and machine tools, quartersawn material tends to tear in planing and shaping, produces a woolly finish unless tools are kept sharp, nails and glues well.

Durability: Heartwood is rated as perishable and nonresistant to termites; sapwood liable to powder-post beetle attack. Liable to sap stain, log conversion should be rapid.

Preservation: Heartwood and inner sapwood resistant to moderately resistant to preservative treatments; outer sapwood is permeable.

Uses: Core stock for plywood, joinery, general millwork, furniture components, boxes and crates, a decorative veneer can be produced from selected logs. Gum exudates from cracks and wounds in the trunk are used to make a varnish (West African Gum Copal).

Additional Reading: (3), (9), (18), (44)