---
title: Mopani wood in a terrarium | Glass Jar Garden
description: Mopani wood: Heavy two-tone wood that sinks and barely rots. In the jar it has holds water 12.5 % by volume, pore space 22.5 % by volume, weight 1110 g/L.
url: https://glassjar.garden/guide/hardscape/mopani/
---

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.

## Sources

- [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mopane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mopane)
- [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driftwood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driftwood)

[Grow it in a jar](https://glassjar.garden/?guide=hardscape/mopani)

[Manzanita](https://glassjar.garden/guide/hardscape/manzanita/) · [Mountain stone](https://glassjar.garden/guide/hardscape/mountain-stone/) · [All stones and wood](https://glassjar.garden/guide/hardscape/)