{"id":2253,"date":"2017-04-10T04:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T08:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/?p=2253"},"modified":"2017-02-03T19:32:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-04T00:32:37","slug":"leopardwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/leopardwood\/","title":{"rendered":"Leopardwood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Formally speaking, the wood commonly known as Leopardwood is harvested from the Roupala montana<\/em> tree. Some sources list R. brasiliensis<\/em> as an acceptable synonym and such situations are not uncommon in taxonomy as different scientists, especially in the taxonomic heydays of the 18th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup> centuries may have, unknowingly due to difficulty in long distance communications, have independently described and named the same species at different times with different names.<\/p>\n R. montana<\/em> is native to a large swath of New World forest, ranging from Mexico in the north, through Central America, out to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as across South America to southern Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil.<\/p>\n While that all seems simple and straightforward enough, as is so often the case with tropical hardwoods that acquire commercial common names based on visible features, there is plenty of room for confusion when considering any one piece of wood marketed as “Leopardwood.”<\/p>\n