Sapele ( /s??pi?li?/), also known as Sapelli or Aboudikro, is a large tree, Entandrophragma cylindricum, up to 45 m high (rarely 60 m) and native to tropical Africa. The leaves are deciduous in the dry season, alternately arranged, pinnate, with 5-9 pairs of leaflets, each leaflet about 10 cm long. The flowers are produced in loose inflorescences when the tree is leafless, each flower about 5 mm diameter, with five yellowish petals. The fruit is a pendulous capsule about 10 cm long and 4 cm broad; when mature it splits into five sections to release the 15-20 seeds.
[edit] Uses
The commercially important wood is reminiscent of mahogany, with a distinctive figure, typically applied where figure is important. It is sought after as flooring for its durability and beautiful graining. Among its more exotic uses is that in guitar manufacturing, in the top, back and sides of acoustic guitar bodies as well as the tops of electric guitar bodies, for example by well known guitar manufacturers such as Ibanez (Japan/USA), Taylor (USA), Martin (USA), Larrivée (Canada) and Esteve (Spain). Leading folk harp manufacturer Dusty Strings (in Seattle, WA, USA) also makes very high-quality 26- and 36-string harps of sapele. Sapele is also used for the neck piece of ukuleles due to its pleasant aesthetic quality, by such manufacturers as the Hawaiian companies Kamaka and Koaloha. Late in the 90s, it started to be used as a board for Basque percussion instruments txalaparta on the strength of the livelier quality of the sound. It is also used by American car maker Cadillac for interior wood trim on its vehicles, with advertising for the Cadillac CTS highlighting the phrase "Sapele wood accents." The wood has a density of 640 kg per cubic metre.

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