Huanghuali, Chinese name: Xiangxiang Dalbergia, alias: Hainan Dalbergia, Hainan Huanghuali, Huali. Butterfly family, Dalbergia genus, is a leguminous plant, also known as Hainan Dalbergia and Hainan Huanghuali. Origin China Hainan Island Diaoluo Mountain Jianfengling low-altitude plains and hilly areas, mostly grown in sunny places about 100 meters above sea level in Diaoluo Mountain. Because of its slow maturity, solid wood and beautiful patterns, huanghuali wood, red sandalwood, wenge and ironwood are also known as the four famous trees in ancient China. It has always been one of the four famous trees, and is now a national second-class protected plant.
Morphological characteristics
Overall characteristics of the canopy
Deciduous tree, tree height is 10-25 meters, maximum diameter at breast height is more than 60cm, the crown is broad and umbrella-shaped, the branches are low, the branches are many, and the side branches are thick.
bark features
Hainan Huanghuali
Bark brown or light brown, rough, longitudinally grooved. Except for the young part, inflorescence and ovary slightly pubescent, the whole plant is glabrous; branchlets have small and dense lenticels.
leaf feature
Pinnate compound leaves are 12-25 cm long; petioles are 1.5-3 cm long; stipules are caducous.
distribution range
main distribution area
Mainly distributed in Vietnam, Myanmar, and China Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Yunnan, Sichuan and other places.
Distribution of Dalbergia Dalbergia in Hainan
Dalbergia japonica is scattered in the western, southwestern and southern parts of the island in the mountains and forests of Dongfang, Changjiang, Ledong, Baisha and Yaxian. It can be harvested in four seasons. Over the years, my country's forestry department has invested a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources in the research of "Dalbergia sinensis" seedlings. Although it has been successful, the survival rate is low, so it has not been widely promoted. According to experts, the color, texture, pattern, luster and oiliness of the heartwood (commonly known as "grid") of "Dalbergia sinensis" due to its geographical distribution characteristics and unique growth environment are very obvious. The price of heartwood (oil lattice) with darker color, heavy specific gravity and strong oiliness in the west of the island is slightly higher than that of heartwood (bran lattice) with lighter color and less oiliness in the east of the island. Period over-harvesting is also nearing an end.
Introduction of Dalbergia sinensis elsewhere
Dalbergia sinensis is a unique tree species in Hainan Island. Except for the eastern mountainous areas (such as Diaoluo Mountain) with more rainfall and high humidity, it is scattered all over the island, but it is more concentrated in the west. Generally distributed in the mountains below 670m above sea level and even the savanna and xerophyte plains. There are small pure forests in some local areas of Baisha, Dongfang and Changjiang counties. Guangdong mainland, Guangxi, Fujian and other provinces (autonomous regions) have successively introduced and cultivated. Judging from the situation of introduction in various places, the seedling stage is generally withered during winter, but it can germinate and resume normal growth.
How to identify
Due to the extremely high price of Hainan huanghuali, there are inevitably some fake and genuine imitations on the market, so how to distinguish the real and fake Hainan huanghuali furniture.
The scent of huanghuali
Hainan Huanghuali has the unique fragrance of Dalbergia Dalbergia. However, the aroma of Hainan huanghuali that everyone can come into contact with has many "smell", and some even stink. This requires everyone to get out of the misunderstanding of relying solely on "taste to distinguish" Hainan huanghuali. The fragrance of Hainan huanghuali is not as dense and long-lasting as agarwood. It can only be smelled by freshly cut surfaces or sealed cups and jars; once the freshly cut surfaces are exposed to the air, the fragrance will fade away soon, until the new surface is scratched. surface will radiate again. Therefore, don't think that your baby can't smell the fragrance and start to suspect that it is not the real Hainan huanghuali. In addition, even in rainy or humid weather, Hainan Huanghuali will exude a lingering fragrance. Of course, there are also old materials that are hard to come by in thousands of years. Even if you put on wax, it is difficult to seal the fragrance of the treasures made from such old materials, and they are very mellow.
Pattern of huanghuali
In addition to the addictive fragrance of Hainan huanghuali, the pattern can also be intoxicating. The patterns of Hainan huanghuali include strange "grimace", dense "ghost eyes" and patterns like "tiger skin". New players often rely on these concepts to judge the authenticity and quality of Hainan Huanghuali. In fact, the patterns, lines and lines of Hainan huanghuali come in many forms. Not all Hainan huanghuali have "ghost faces" and "ghost eyes". The patterns of Hainan huanghuali are thick and thin, but they are very clear, not messy, with streamlined, curved, and even straight patterns; most of them are black line patterns, and occasionally dark brown or red line patterns can be seen. Most of them are pineapples in the east of Hainan; the color of the material with fine patterns is often not very different, and the color of the pattern with coarse patterns is obviously different from the color of the material, and the overall color is very beautiful, most of which are pears in western Hainan. What I want to remind everyone here is that not all Hainan Huanghua pears have beautiful patterns. Many old materials and scraps of old materials do not have any patterns, but they are very valuable.
The material of huanghuali
When talking about huanghuali, we have to talk about its material. There are countless kinds of Hainan huanghuali itself by the material and pattern. No two pieces of the same utensil have the same material and pattern. The material is also the big difference between Hainan huanghuali and Vietnam huanghuali. Most of the Hainan huanghuali material that you can come into contact with can be easily polished to be fluorescent, what kind of fluorescent feeling is after sweeping wax, translucent amber texture, warm and moist The feeling of jade has come out, and a few Hainan huanghuali roots or rods that have been soaked in water for a long time will have a material surface like Vietnam's huanghuali, and they will look much better if they are not polished with wax. After the Hainan huanghuali is polished, the surface pores are few or even none, and the reflection is very strong; the Vietnamese huanghuali has thick pores, and the material looks loose and feels light absorption. After waxing, the contrast between the two is more obvious.
The air-dry density of Hainan huanghuali is 0.82-0.94/cm³. Only a few heavy materials or finished products will sink into the water, and most of them will surface a little. Therefore, it is wrong to understand that it is not a good material if it does not sink in water. Huanghuali is divided into eastern pineapples (yellow color) and western pineapples (red, purple, and black), eastern pineapples are lighter in material than western pineapples. The wood used for tribute to the royal family in ancient times is most famous for its strong fluorescence, and its translucent texture reveals repeated golden threads.
main value
Very stable wood
The wood property of huanghuali wood is extremely stable, it will not be deformed, cracked or bent regardless of the cold or heat. , other wood is more difficult to do. The main producing area of huanghuali is Hainan Island. The natural resources are almost exhausted, and there are no natural forests. Nowadays, there are many artificial forests in Hainan, Guangdong and Guangxi, and even Fujian. However, although huanghuali grows fast, it can be used for making household appliances. The growth of the heartwood is quite slow, almost no heartwood can be seen in the tree within ten years, with the growth of the tree, the heartwood gradually becomes larger, and it basically takes more than 4 to 50 years to reach a tree that can be used as a utensil.
The use of making furniture
Huanghuali vintage furniture
Huanghuali is actually a yellow-brown "flower pear" or "flower palm". It is the main material for hardwood furniture in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the heartwood is yellowish brown. The exquisite wooden furniture in the Ming and Qing dynasties were all made of "Huanghuali". Its texture was hidden or visible, and its color was neither quiet nor noisy. It was regarded as a high-quality product and was favored by the craftsmen of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially the literati, The family's aesthetic taste for furniture made the Huanghuali furniture of this period outstanding and outstanding, both from the point of view of artistic aesthetics and ergonomics. It can be called a treasure in the world furniture art.
The production area of huanghuali wood furniture is represented by Suzhou. It is a typical Suzhou-style furniture. In addition, the southern Guangdong and Guangxi and Hainan Island and other places also produced huanghuali wood furniture during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which is called Guangzuo or Cantonese-style furniture.
The medicinal part of huanghuali is called hualige or fragrant wood, mainly referring to the heartwood part of its trunk and roots. The medicinal material has a fragrant smell and a slightly bitter taste. The aroma of burning is strong and oil flows out. It can be ground by adding water. The medicinal liquid can treat various pains. Its heartwood is used as medicine and has aroma. It is mainly used for rheumatism, low back pain, vomiting blood, heart and stomach qi pain, high blood pressure, etc. It can also be used to make fixatives. It is a famous fragrant family.
Modern scientific research has proved that the essential oil extracted from huanghuali wood can stimulate cell regeneration and metabolism, which is beneficial to the nourishment of dry skin; it has excellent anti-wrinkle function on the skin, can promote skin tissue regeneration and enhance skin elasticity. The essential oil also has antibacterial, insecticidal, and stress-relieving properties. Burning huanghuali wood can play the role of incense. For example, the bedrooms of the elderly or the infirm, and the bedrooms of the elderly and weak women and children who need long-term recuperation, can be used for daily conditioning by burning huanghuali wood.
Hainan huanghuali, also known as "hypertensive wood", is called "Jiangxiang" in "Compendium of Materia Medica". Its wood chips soaked in water can lower blood pressure and blood lipids, and when used as a pillow, it can relax tendons and activate blood.