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Dalbergia melanoxylon; photograph (c) Martjie Fia Fourie, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Martjie Fia Fourie, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-06-01

Dalbergia melanoxylon Guill. & Perr.

African blackwood; African ebony; Mozambique ebony; Chinese blackwood

Fabaceae · Burkina, Guinea +26

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Dalbergia melanoxylon, photograph (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dalbergia melanoxylon, photograph (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dalbergia melanoxylon, photograph (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dalbergia melanoxylon, photograph (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dalbergia melanoxylon, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedDalbergia melanoxylon, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 62 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.3°C
Record low 8.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
40°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
604mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
34–45DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes January to March (July to September at the habitat), read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Dalbergia melanoxylon (African blackwood, grenadilla, or mpingo) is a flowering plant in the subfamily Faboideae of the family Fabaceae, native to seasonally dry regions of Africa from Senegal east to Eritrea, to southern regions of Tanzania to Mozambique and south to the north-eastern parts of South Africa. The tree is an important timber species in its native areas; it is used in the manufacture of musical instruments, sculptures vinyago in Swahili language and fine furniture. Populations and genomic resources for genetic biodiversity maintenance in parts of its native range are threatened by overharvesting due to poor or absent conservation planning and by the species' low germination rates.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dalbergia melanoxylon", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Dalbergia

Dalbergia is a large genus of small to medium-size trees, shrubs and lianas in the pea family, Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic Dalbergia clade : the Dalbergieae. The genus has a wide distribution, native to the tropical regions of Central and South America, Africa, Madagascar and Southern Asia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dalbergia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (452 mm of 591 mm) falls in July to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 26.5 °C against a yearly mean of 28.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: January to March.

Rain

591 mm in the median year at the habitat, 452 mm of it July to September. Wettest month August at 192 mm, driest months (4 at 0 mm); 5 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 331 mm to 1,125 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 604 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 591 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 34 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 31, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.3 °C, the absolute minimum 8.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 44.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 15.3 °C to 19.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 39.5 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 31 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +7 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dalbergia melanoxylon through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 40 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 17.0 °C; 591 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°44.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER8.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 34–45RH 31–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 225 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C31 / 30–3334 / 32–3637 / 32–3940 / 32–4139 / 30–4136 / 29–3932 / 28–3630 / 28–3431 / 28–3535 / 29–3735 / 30–3632 / 30–34
Night °C17 / 15–1919 / 17–2122 / 21–2425 / 22–2626 / 24–2725 / 23–2723 / 22–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–2520 / 19–2318 / 16–20
Rain mm0 / 0–110 / 0–251 / 0–758 / 0–11533 / 2–12571 / 15–167158 / 72–254192 / 119–284102 / 63–17826 / 11–870 / 0–440 / 0–15
DLI39 / 34–4043 / 39–4345 / 40–4645 / 36–4842 / 35–4740 / 34–4635 / 32–4234 / 31–4037 / 34–4140 / 37–4140 / 36–4038 / 33–39
RH %35 / 33–5431 / 30–5431 / 29–5737 / 32–5947 / 38–5953 / 46–6261 / 54–6564 / 58–6862 / 55–6750 / 44–6237 / 35–5936 / 34–59

Records on both sides of the equator: the 71 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 225 cells that remain: the 192 at least 10° north and the 33 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 225 grid cells holding the 267 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1479:3308 (16.025, -14.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 44.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 225 distinct grid cells holding 267 of the 370 in-range records on the northern side of the equator (192 cells poleward of 10° north, 71 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1479:3308 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 16.00_-14.375, lapse-corrected +7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 50 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBurkina, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, Swaziland, Northern Provinces · introduced: Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-24.703, 31.595 · in the densest population, 277 records (28% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 999 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 267 of them in the land cells it reads, of 370 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 824 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4369 km away. 53 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 629 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 999 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Dalbergia melanoxylon, photograph 1did not loadDalbergia melanoxylon, photograph 2did not loadDalbergia melanoxylon, photograph 3did not loadDalbergia melanoxylon, photograph 4did not loadDalbergia melanoxylon, photograph 5did not loadDalbergia melanoxylon, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Schoenoplectiella senegalensis Schoenoplectiella senegalensis Spring Onion Clubrush Photo: CC BY-SA, Umar MusaBoscia salicifolia Boscia salicifolia Capparaceae Photo: CC BY, i_c_riddellVachellia seyal Vachellia seyal Talh Photo: CC BY, Lucy Keith-DiagneCorchorus tridens Corchorus tridens Wild jute Photo: CC BY, Nishant KaushikGuiera senegalensis Guiera senegalensis Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Attila OláhHyphaene thebaica Hyphaene thebaica Doum palm Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Dalbergia 18 in the reference

Dalbergia armata Dalbergia armata Thorny Rope Photo: CC BY, Mark CostelloDalbergia assamica Dalbergia assamica Fabaceae Photo: CC0, LannafoliumDalbergia benthamii Dalbergia benthamii Bentham's Rosewood Photo: CC BY, Denys VynokurovDalbergia cochinchinensis Dalbergia cochinchinensis Siamese Rosewood Photo: CC0, PamputtDalbergia ecastaphyllum Dalbergia ecastaphyllum Coinvine Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreDalbergia hupeana Dalbergia hupeana Hwangdan Photo: Public domain, CiftoniaDalbergia lanceolaria Dalbergia lanceolaria Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna ChaitanyaDalbergia latifolia Dalbergia latifolia Indian rosewood Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna ChaitanyaDalbergia millettii Dalbergia millettii Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedDalbergia miscolobium Dalbergia miscolobium Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Marcio Santos FerreiraDalbergia nigra Dalbergia nigra Bahia rosewood Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizDalbergia obovata Dalbergia obovata Climbing Flat-bean Photo: CC0, author not stated all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Amerimnon melanoxylon; Amerimnon stocksii; Dalbergia stocksii. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Guill. & Perr.
Native to
Burkina, Guinea, Ivory Coast +25
Wild records
999 in range · 824 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 16.00_-14.375, lapse-corrected +7 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 71 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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