The heartwood is pink to brownish pink, tan- red, brown to midbrown, straw through to honey while the narrow sapwood band is
coloured white to pale grey. The lustrous sheen of the heartwood
makes for a distinctive timber. The grain is somewhat interlocked,
often wavy or curly, and the texture medium and uniform. It exhibits
a wide variety of figures including ribbon grain resulting from layers
of interlocking grain, fiddle back and ripple caused by sudden dips
in the growth rings. Some quarter sawn boards show various types
of figure such as waterwave,rib and birdseye. It is regarded as one
of the finest cabinet woods in the world.
Birdseye - Areas of dark coloured soft tissue, giving dressed
surfaces a dimpled appearance, caused by attack to the living
tree by an insect restricted to this species. This feature, though
not particularly common in wood marketed for furniture or highvalue decorative uses, is a feature for distinguishing wood of F.
brayleyana from otherwise very similar wood of F. pimenteliana
(maple silkwood)