Paubrasilia
species of plant
Paubrasilia echinata is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. It is a Brazilian timber tree commonly known as brazilwood (pau-brasil; Tupi: ybyrapytanga) and is the national tree of Brazil. This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it is the premier wood used for making bows for stringed instruments. The wood also yields a historically important red dye called brazilin, which oxidizes to brazilein.
The name pau-brasil was applied to certain species of the genus Caesalpinia in the medieval period, and was given its original scientific name Caesalpinia echinata in 1785 by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. More recent taxonomic studies have suggested that it merits recognition as a separate genus, and it was thus renamed Paubrasilia echinata in 2016. The Latin specific epithet of echinata refers to hedgehog, from echinus, and describes the thorns which cover all parts of the tree (including the fruits).
The name of Brazil is a shortened form of Terra do Brasil, 'land of brazilwood'.
Name
When Portuguese explorers found Paubrasilia on the coast of South America, they recognised it as a relative of an Asian species of sappanwood already used in Europe for producing red dye. The Portuguese named these trees pau-brasil, the term pau meaning wood, and brasil meaning reddish/ember-like.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Paubrasilia” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Paubrasilia, species and plant, not as a finished interpretation.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q42675898. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1785 and 2016.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paubrasilia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.