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| Name | Piquiá |
| Other Names | Ajillo (Costa Rica), pekia, souari (Guyana), sawarie, sawari, (Suriname), almendro, amêndoa do Peru (Peru), pequi, pequi-roxo, pequiá, piquiá, piquiarana, piqui, pitiá (Brazil). |
| Botanical Name | Caryocar villosum (Aubl.) Pers. |
| Family | Caryocaraceae. |
| Origin | Costa Rica, Northern Colombia, Amazon and the Guyanas. |
| Tree Description | Grows to heights of 36 to 45 m and diameters of 1.5 to 2 m (5 m diameters have been recorded) in the Amazon, and diameters of 0.9 to 1.2 m in Colombia. Branch-free trunks measure up to 21 m in length and are well-shaped. |
| Available As | Planed timber |
| Wood Description | Heartwood is sometimes greasy and light yellow to light greyish brown in colour, sometimes with a pink tint and a striped pattern of varying visibility due to variations in thick and thin-walled cells. Heartwood is virtually indistinguishable from sapwood. Feels rough to the touch due to interlocked grain. Freshly sawn piquia has a slight vinegary odour, but is odourless and tasteless once dried. |
| Wood Type | Hardwood |
| Grain | Mainly interlocked. |
| Texture | Moderately coarse to coarse. |
| Density | (780)/800/820/(980) kg/m3 at 12% humidity, 1120 kg/m3 when green. |
| Working | - |
| Drying | Slow with a tendency for distortion and surface cracking and hardening. |
| Workability | Piquia can be sawn easily or with moderate difficulty. Blunts cutting tools slightly to moderately. Woolly surface can arise due to internal strain and tension. Sharp cutting tools are required for planing radial (quarter-sawn) surfaces due to interlocked grain. |
| Fixings and Fasteners | Pre-drilling required |
| Bonding | Poor |
| Pliability | - |
| Surface Finishing | Moderate to good. Hairline surface cracks can appear as a result of working the wood. |
| Durability | Piquia is supposedly very resistant to moulds (1) in laboratory tests, e.g. brown streak and white rot moulds. Piquia has been classified as moderately good in laboratory resistance tests, which contradicts its good reputation in the tropics. Greasier wood is apparently more durable that less greasy wood. Resistant to termites. Resistant to dry wood burrowers. Moderately resistant to marine burrowers. |
| Strength Class | In 2000, Piquia was classified in limited strength trials, conforming to NEN 5498:1997, as K37. Visual sorting criteria for Piquia based on grain slope of max. 1:10 and knots max. 0.2. Please refer to the Dutch usage guidelines (NPR 5493; 1999, kwaliteitsrichtlijnen voor loofhout in waterbouwkundige werken ['Quality Guidelines for Hardwoods Used in Hydraulic-Engineering Projects']) for other permissible imperfections for application categories. It is expected that it will be classified in a higher strength class following further trials. |
| Impregnability | Heartwood - difficult. Sapwood - unknown. |
| Peculiarities | Piquia is often mixed with lighter-coloured piquiarana (Caryocar glabrum (Aubl.) Pers. that falls into a lower durability classification. Cellulose levels were determined to be 54.1%, and lignin levels 30.7%, while researching piquia's suitability for the cellulose industry. Fruits measure 50 to 150 mm and contain one to four tasty nuts that are used for human consumption or edible oil. |
| Applications | Interior and exterior construction timber for structures requiring hardness and durability, parquet, flooring, boat building, blanking for furniture, construction timber, sills, treads, park benches, garden furniture, wagon building, bodywork, bridge decks, ship decks and lock gates, etc. |
| Quality Requirements | - |
Source: Houtvademecum, 8e druk 2001