English: Sneeze-wood; Sneezewood tree; Ptaeroxylon utile.
Name: ptaeroxylon is Greek for sneeze and wood; obliquum refers to the oblique leaflets.
Genus: 1 species.
Region: Southern Africa, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique; introduced in Australia.
Content: nieshoutol.
Use: wood for railway sleepers, furniture, xylophone keys, fuel for steam tugs, fences, telegraph poles, favourite amongst woodturners; ritual purposes; bark to repel moths or as snuff; resin to get rid of warts and cattle ticks.
BotanyShrub or medium deciduous tree; 15 metres tall.
Stem: bark is whitish-grey, smooth when young, fissured with age; wood extremely hard, durable, lasts longer than brass or iron when used for machine bearings, specific gravity of 1040 kg/m3; wood attractive, with golden heartwood, with light orange figures.
Leaves: compound; leaflets blue-green to dark green, 2.5 x 1.3 cm, marked asymmetrically, crowd near the ends of the rachis in three to seven pairs of leaflets.
Flowers: white to creamy yellow; fragrant.