This is one of the most majestic trees of the forests of Guiana, where it attains a height of from 100 to 150 feet, and is frequently found 60 feet in height without a branch. When of that length it will square 18 or 20 inches, but is then seldom sound throughout. The wood is extremely tough, close, and cross-grained, so that it is difficult to split, which renders it peculiarly adapted for ship-building. The trunk makes admirable keels, timbers, and beams, and the branches, having a natural crookedness of growth, are unsurpassed as knees. Were men-of-war ceiled with this wood, little mischief would be occasioned by splinters during action. In most respects it is superior to oak, particularly in its exemption from dry rot. This, as well as greenheart, ranks as one of the eight first-class woods at Lloyd's for ship-building. It is abundant along the rivers of the coast region: it grows luxuriantly on sand reefs and on tracts of barren clay known as "Mora clay." The bark of the Mora is used for tanning.

The weight of a cubic foot, when dry, is about 57 lbs.; the crushing force of a column 1 inch square and 1 inch high is about 10,000 lbs.; and the transverse strength of a specimen 1 foot long between the supports and 1 inch square is, when loaded in the middle, about 1212 lbs.*