Stones and wood
Mopani wood
Reusable
Heavy two-tone wood that sinks and barely rots.
What the simulation uses
- Holds water
- 12.5 % by volume
- Water it keeps after draining; the rest runs down to the drainage.
- Pore space
- 22.5 % by volume
- Room for air and water between grains; low means roots suffocate when wet.
- Weight
- 1110 g/L
- How heavy a litre is.
- pH
- 5 to 6.5 pH
- How acid it keeps the soil.
- Mould risk
- low
- How much fresh food it gives white mould; high-risk soils fuzz over in the first weeks.
- Breaks down in
- 10 to 30 years
- How long it lasts before rotting down to fine soil.
- Nutrients
- none
- Plant food it brings.
Description
One of southern Africa's heaviest woods, mopani sinks at once and resists termites and rot. Expect tea-coloured tannins early on, which nudge the pH down. Mould rarely bothers it.
Also called mopane, Colophospermum mopane.
Estimated, where sources were thin: tannin leach rate and pH effect estimated.