Chlorocardium rodiei (Greenheart) is a member of the family Lauraceae. It is the sole species of the genus Chlorocardium, formerly classified in either of the genera Nectandra or Ocotea, as Nectandra rodiei or Ocotea rodiei. Other local names include sipiri, beeberu and bibiru. It is native to northern South America, chiefly in Guyana (formerly British Guiana). The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms (as opposed to folk taxonomy). ... Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Marchantiophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a fern... Classes Magnoliopsida- Dicots Liliopsida- Monocots The flowering plants (also called angiosperms) are a major group of land plants. ... Magnoliopsida is the botanical name for a class: this name is formed by replacing the termination -aceae in the name Magnoliaceae by the termination -opsida (Art 16 of the ICBN). ... Families Atherospermataceae Calycanthaceae Gomortegaceae Hernandiaceae Lauraceae Monimiaceae Siparunaceae The Laurales are an order of flowering plants. ... Genera Many; see text The Lauraceae or Laurel family comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ... Genera Many; see text The Lauraceae or Laurel family comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... British Guiana and its boundary lines, 1896 Flag of British Guiana British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana. ...

It is an evergreen tree growing to 15-30 m tall with a trunk diameter of 35-60 cm. The leaves are opposite, simple, with an entire margin. The fruit is a drupe containing a single seed. A Silver Fir shoot showing three successive years of retained leaves In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant which retains its leaves year-round, with each leaf persisting for more than 12 months. ... The coniferous Coast Redwood, the tallest tree species on earth. ... The leaves of a Beech tree A leaf with laminar structure and pinnate venation In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. ... Fruit stall in Barcelona, Catalonia. ... The peach is a typical drupe (stone fruit) In botany, a drupe is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp or skin and mesocarp or flesh) surrounds a shell (the pit or stone) of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. ... A ripe red jalapeno cut open to show the seeds For other uses, see Seed (disambiguation). ...

Uses

The wood is extremely hard and strong, denser than solid iron and so hard that it cannot be worked with standard tools. Being extremely durable in marine conditions, Greenheart is used extensively in the building of docks and in similar applications and was an early choice for fly fishing rods. Fly rod and reel with a wild brown trout from a chalk stream. ...

Greenheart is listed on the IUCN Red list (1996) as Vulnerable. Between 15 and 28% of the original population has been harvested to date. Harvesting as a commercial timber began in the late 1700s, but most of the harvesting has only taken place since the introduction of chainsaws in 1967. The World Conservation Union or International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation. ... A chainsaw (also spelled chain saw) is a portable mechanical, motorized saw. ...

The Fram and the Endurance, the two strongest wooden ships ever constructed and made famous in the polar expeditions of Amundsen and Shackelton, were sheathed in greenheart to prevent the ships from being crushed by ice. Fram in Antarctica in Roald Amundsens expedition. ... Endurance trapped in pack ice during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition The Endurance was the three-masted barquentine in which Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. ... Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (July 16, 1872–June 18?, 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. ... Portrait of Ernest Henry Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton CVO, OBE (February 15, 1874 – January 5, 1922) was an Anglo-Irish explorer, now chiefly remembered for his Antarctic expedition of 1914–1916 in the ship Endurance. ...

References

• Germplasm Resources Information Network: Chlorocardium
• Virtual Tree Guide of the Guyanas: Chlorocardium herbarium specimens
• Guyana Forestry Commission: Guyana Woods (pdf file; Greenheart, p.7).