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28-537: The first Europeans to have lived in what would become the neighborhood were the French, who came to extract Brazilwood . On July 16, 1565, the neighbourhood was named Gávea for the first time, by Estácio de Sá . The neighborhood is named Gávea (which means topsail in Portuguese ) because of an 852 m peak ( Gávea Rock , or Pedra da Gávea ) that resembles the topsail of the carrack , a sailing ship. The Hipódromo da Gávea

56-435: A blood-red blotch. The fruits are oval-shaped woody seedpods, measuring up to 7.3 centimetres (2.9 in) long and 2.6 centimetres (1.0 in) across; they hang off the branches and after the seeds are expelled, the pods become twisted. The branches, leaves and fruit are covered with small thorns. There are some important differences between geographically distinct populations and it is thought that separate subspecies of

84-483: A relative of an Asian species of sappanwood already used in Europe for producing red dye. The Portuguese named these trees pau-brasil , the term pau meaning wood, and brasil meaning reddish/ember-like. The South American trees soon dominated trading as a better source of dye. Such a vigorous trade resulted from the woods that early sailors and merchants started referring to the land itself as Terra do Brasil , or simply,

112-433: A separate genus, and it was thus renamed Paubrasilia echinata in 2016. The Latin specific epithet of echinata refers to hedgehog , from echinus , and describes the thorns which cover all parts of the tree (including the fruits). The name of Brazil is a shortened form of Terra do Brasil , 'land of brazilwood'. When Portuguese explorers found Paubrasilia on the coast of South America, they recognised it as

140-502: Is a horse racing venue located in the neighborhood. Estádio da Gávea the home of CR Flamengo football club, despite being named after the neighborhood, is located in the Lagoa neighborhood. Gávea was the site of a street circuit that hosted Grand Prix racing in the 1930s and 1940s. This Rio de Janeiro state , Brazil location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Brazilwood Paubrasilia echinata

168-467: Is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae , that is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. It is a Brazilian timber tree commonly known as Pernambuco wood or brazilwood ( Portuguese : pau-de-pernambuco , pau-brasil ; Tupi : ybyrapytanga ) and is the national tree of Brazil . This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it

196-462: Is brownish grey, tough and hard to peel. The wood is of a pleasant yellowish colour, barely knotted and very tough and heavy (0,935 kg/dm³). It's rich in tannins and therefore very resistant to weather and sun. It is not very useful for furniture since it is so hard to work by hand. It can be found as beams or fulfilling other structural uses where needed outdoors. In the southern hemisphere, pink lapacho flowers between July and September, before

224-439: Is claimed to work by promoting the lungs to expectorate and free deeply embedded mucus and contaminants during the first three to ten days of treatment. In ethnomedicine , lapacho plays an important role for several South American indigenous people. In the past decades it has been used by herbalists as a general tonic , immunostimulant , and adaptogen . It is used in herbal medicine for intestinal candidiasis . However,

252-511: Is the national tree of Paraguay. It is also planted as a street tree in cities of India, like in Bengaluru . The inner bark is used in traditional medicine . It is dried, shredded, and then boiled, making a bitter brownish-colored tea known as lapacho or taheebo. The unpleasant taste of the extract is lessened when taken in pill form, or as tinctures . Lapacho bark is typically used during flu and cold season and for easing smoker's cough . It

280-559: Is the national tree of Paraguay . It is a rather large deciduous tree, with trunks sometimes reaching 80 cm (31 in) in width and 30 m (98 ft) in height. Usually a third of that height is trunk, and two thirds are its longer branches. It has a large, globous, but often sparse canopy . The tree has a slow growth rate. Leaves are opposite and petiolate , 2 to 3 inches long, elliptic and lanceolate , with lightly serrated margins and pinnate venation . The leaves are palmately compound with usually 5 leaflets. Its bark

308-465: Is the premier wood used for making bows for stringed instruments. The wood also yields a historically important red dye called brazilin , which oxidizes to brazilein. The name pau-brasil was applied to certain species of the genus Caesalpinia in the medieval period, and was given its original scientific name Caesalpinia echinata in 1785 by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck . More recent taxonomic studies have suggested that it merits recognition as

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336-522: The GFDL . [REDACTED] Data related to Paubrasilia at Wikispecies Handroanthus impetiginosus Handroanthus impetiginosus , the pink ipê , pink lapacho or pink trumpet tree , is a tree in the family Bignoniaceae , distributed throughout North, Central and South America, from northern Mexico south to northern Argentina . Along with all the other species in the Handroanthus genus, it

364-505: The "Land of Brazil"; from this use, the present name of Brazil was derived. Botanically, several tree species are involved, all in the family Fabaceae (the pulse family). The term "brazilwood" is most often used to refer to the species Paubrasilia echinata , but it is also applied to other species, such as Biancaea sappan and Haematoxylum brasiletto . The tree is also known by other names, such as ibirapitanga , from Tupi , meaning "reddish wood"; or pau de pernambuco , named after

392-533: The Brazilian state of Pernambuco . In the bow-making business, it is usual to refer to some species other than Paubrasilia echinata as "brazilwood"; examples include pink ipê ( Handroanthus impetiginosus ), Massaranduba ( Manilkara bidentata ) and palo brasil ( Haematoxylum brasiletto ). The highly prized Paubrasilia echinata is usually called "Pernambuco wood" in this particular context. The brazilwood tree may reach up to 15 metres (49 ft) in height, and

420-544: The King, to establish a colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro ( France Antarctique ) was motivated in part by the bounty generated by economic exploitation of brazilwood. In addition, this plant is also cited in Flora Brasiliensis by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius . Excessive harvesting led to a steep decrease in the number of brazilwood trees in the 18th century, causing the collapse of this economic activity. Presently,

448-573: The bowmakers who rely on pernambuco for their livelihoods, is working to replant the trees. IPCI advocates the use of other woods for violin bows to raise money to plant pernambuco seedlings. The shortage of pernambuco has also helped the carbon fiber and composite bow industry to thrive. Restoration of the species in the wild is hampered by the fact that it is a climax community species, which will develop well only when planted amongst secondary forest vegetation. Although many saplings have been distributed or sold during recent decades, that has led to

476-409: The dark brown bark flakes in large patches, revealing the lustrous blood-red sapwood underneath. The leaves are pinnate and each consists of between 9 and 19 small, leathery leaflets, which are broadly oblong in shape. The flower stalk, or inflorescence, is also branched and contains between 15 and 40 yellow, strongly perfumed flowers, which may be pollinated by bees. The petals are usually yellow with

504-424: The early 1900s there were essentially none left to harvest in the wild. Unfortunately the current scenario is one in which Handroanthus is headed for similar unsustainable depletion of wild populations. It is used as a honey plant , and widely planted as an ornamental tree in landscaping gardens, public squares and boulevards due to its impressive and colorful appearance as it flowers. Well-known and popular, it

532-528: The flowers of other Handroanthus species, while for others like the stripe-breasted starthroat ( Heliomaster squamosus ) it may even be a mainstay food source. Harvest of wild Handroanthus impetiginosus for lumber to make flooring and decking (in which case it is referred to as ipê in much of the timber trade) has become a major cause of deforestation in the Amazon . Because the trees do not grow in concentrated stands but instead are found scattered throughout

560-442: The forest, logging roads have to be built long distances to locate and harvest the trees. In most cases, once these trees are logged, the rest of the forest is cleared for agricultural use. Scientific examination of current logging practices, in which 90% of mature trees can be legally harvested, found that recovery from juvenile populations within 60 years was not likely under any feasible scenario (five were modeled). The parallel to

588-434: The main active compound lapachol has since turned out to be toxic enough to kill fetuses in pregnant rats and reduce the weight of the seminal vesicle in male rats in doses of 100 mg/kg of body weight. Still, lapachol has strong antibiotic and disinfectant properties, and may be better suited for topical applications. Lapachol induces genetic damage, specifically clastogenic effects, in rats. Beta-lapachone has

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616-463: The manufacture of luxury textiles , such as velvet , in high demand during the Renaissance . When Portuguese navigators landed in present-day Brazil, on April 22, 1500, they immediately saw that brazilwood was extremely abundant along the coast and in its hinterland, along the rivers. In a few years, a hectic and very profitable operation for felling and shipping all the brazilwood logs they could get

644-493: The new leaves appear. The flower is large, tubular shaped, its corolla is often pink or magenta, though exceptionally white, about 2 in (5.1 cm) long. There are four stamens and a staminode . The fruit consists of a narrow dehiscent capsule containing several winged seeds. The flowers are easily accessible to pollinators . Some hummingbirds - e.g. black jacobin ( Florisuga fusca ) and black-throated mango ( Anthracothorax nigricollis ) - seem to prefer them over

672-583: The overharvesting of Swietenia macrophylla (big-leaf mahogany), a tree that grows in a similar distribution in the same areas as ipê, is interesting, yet ipê continues to be logged at prodigious rates with no sign of a listing in the Convention on Trade in International Species or other drastic actions likely necessary to prevent extinction. Swietenia mahagoni and Swietenia humilis (other species yielding mahogany wood) were so thoroughly depleted that by

700-401: The pau brasil may exist. This tree may have some medicinal properties and has been used as an astringent and antidiuretic by local people; extracts have been tested as possible cancer treatments. Starting in the 16th century, brazilwood became highly valued in Europe and quite difficult to get. A related wood, sappanwood , coming from Asia was traded in powder form and used as a red dye in

728-482: The species is nearly extirpated in most of its original range. Brazilwood is listed as an endangered species by the IUCN , and it is cited in the official list of endangered flora of Brazil . The trade of brazilwood is likely to be banned in the immediate future, creating a major problem in the bow -making industry which highly values this wood. The International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative (IPCI), whose members are

756-548: The tree being planted in places outside its natural range, with somewhat poor results, such as what happens with brazilwood trees used for urban landscaping in the city of São Paulo , whose development and flowering is usually hampered by the colder environment. This article incorporates text from the ARKive fact-file "Paubrasilia" under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License and

784-427: Was established, as a crown-granted Portuguese monopoly . The rich commerce which soon followed stimulated other nations to try to harvest and smuggle brazilwood contraband out of Brazil, and corsairs to attack loaded Portuguese ships in order to steal their cargo. For example, the unsuccessful attempt in 1555 of a French expedition led by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon , vice-admiral of Brittany and corsair under

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