Common Name and Type Genus: Legume family, originally derived from the Faba genus (which is now placed in the Vicia genus)
Distribution: Worldwide in a wide variety of climates
Family Size: Nearly 1,000 genera and over 24,000 species (third largest plant family worldwide, and the largest family for trees and woody shrubs)
Notable Genera: This large family contains many equally large or notable genera. The largest genus, Acacia, contains about 1,000 species alone. Other standouts include Dalbergia (true rosewoods), Guibourtia (bubinga, ovangkol, etc.), Pterocarpus (padauk and narra), as well as a vast number of individual species in smaller genera yielding valuable commercial timber.
Comments: Sometimes referred to by the name Leguminosae, the naming of this family is subject to a fair degree of confusion and conflicting reports. Nevertheless, from a North American perspective, Fabaceae includes a large percentage of what many would call “exotic” hardwood species. It’s hard to understate the importance of this large hardwood family.
The Amburana genus contains only two closely related species, A. cearensis and A. acreana—both of which are sold as cerejeira.
Genus page unavailable. Two species, Amphimas pterocarpoides and A. ferrugineus are both sold as lati.
The Anadenanthera genus currently contains only two recognized species. Some authors also recognize two varieities of each species, while others treat each variety as its own species, for a total of four species. Regardless, all species can be sold interchangeably under the collective trade name curupay.
No genus page available. Though the Andira genus contains about 50 different species, there are only a handful of commercial species, all of which are sold interchangeably as partridgewood. Far and away, the most common is A. inermis, but other species sometimes harvested include A. coriacea and A. surinamensis.
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