One of my favorite species is Para Rosewood, aka Monkeywood, and Macacauba. The botanical genus name is Platymiscium. It is a fairly rare species that comes from the lower Amazon region of Brazil. My business partner, John McGlocklin, formerly of Robinson Lumber, worked with Para Rosewood in the mid 1990’s and had excellent early marketing success.
We brought in several truckloads and have the product available in 3″, 3-1/4″ and 5″ widths in both unfinished and prefinished flooring material. We actually just ran out of the 5″ product and are making more at the Pampa factory in Brazil – should be available again by April or May of 2009.
One of the reasons this is awesome flooring is that it is not UV sensitive. It maintains its color over time and won’t fade or darken. We have some in our Portland office and it is truly beautiful with a wide selection of natural colors including purples, reds, browns, and tans.