West Indian Mahogany

Long before it became famous in fine furniture, the bark of the West Indian mahogany was a staple of Caribbean bush medicine. Healers in Jamaica, Cuba, and across the islands simmered strips of the reddish inner bark into a deeply bitter decoction, taken in small sips as a tonic for fevers and general debility, much the way quassia and other bitter barks were used elsewhere in the tropics. The tree's seeds were pressed for an oil that found its way into folk liniments rubbed onto tired, aching joints. Meanwhile, the tree's dense, rot-resistant, rose-colored heartwood became one of the most sought-after materials in the world, shaping ships, cathedrals, and the furniture of kings and colonists alike for over three centuries.