Is Chocolate Albizia hard or soft?

It is soft and light, with a Janka hardness of just 480 lbf (2,140 N) per USDA Forest Products Laboratory values at 12% moisture content. Work it with sharp tools and light cuts, and stabilize spalted punky pockets with thin CA or resin before machining.

Can Chocolate Albizia be used outdoors?

No. It is non-durable to perishable, vulnerable to both fungus and insects, so it is for indoor use only. That same vulnerability is what produces its spalted chocolate figure.

What is Chocolate Albizia used for?

It suits bowls, hollow forms, art turnings, decorative boxes, and light interior accents. Most stock is salvage from Hawaiian removal projects, where the species is invasive and harvest is encouraged; Raw Heartwood kiln-dries its lumber to 6-8% moisture content.

ExoticFalcataria moluccana

Chocolate Albizia

Invasive in Hawaiʻi. Buying it funds the removal program.

Chocolate Albizia (Falcataria moluccana) is an exotic hardwood with a Janka hardness of 480 lbf. It is soft and light with coarse, uneven texture; the chocolate figure is its spalted form, where fungus draws black zone lines and brown swirl through pale straw-to-cream wood.

Category: Exotic
Janka: 480 lbf
Botanical: Falcataria moluccana
Shipped at: 6–8% MC

Falcataria moluccana Hawaiian-grown spalted Albizia · Hawaiian-grown spalted Albizia · Native to the Moluccas

Native to the Moluccas.

One of the fastest-growing trees on earth. Fresh-milled wood is pale straw to cream, sometimes pink.

Detail of Chocolate Albizia grain — figured wood texture, photographed at Raw Heartwood — A close read on the grain. Detail of this specimen

What you see.

Fresh-milled wood is pale straw to cream, sometimes pink. The chocolate version is the spalted form — fungus draws black zone lines and brown swirl through the pale ground. Every board is different.

Heartwood color detail of Chocolate Albizia (Falcataria moluccana)

Heartwood, this specimen

How the grain runs.

Straight to interlocked. Coarse, uneven texture, low luster. Spalted boards carry punky areas — stabilize before you cut.

Closer detail of Chocolate Albizia grain figure

Closer in

On the bench.

Non-durable to perishable. Fungus and bugs both. That vulnerability is what gives you the figure. Indoors only. Soft and light. Sharp tools, light cuts. Punky pockets need thin CA or resin before you machine. Sands well once stabilized. Finishes accept fine. Mild and a little sour at the cut. Spalted material has a musty note. Dust can irritate lungs. Spalted stock adds spore exposure — wear a fitted respirator if you are running a lot of it.

The numbers, looked at directly.

Janka Hardness

0lbf

2,140 N. Side-hardness — force to embed a half-inch steel ball halfway into the wood.

Average Dried Weight

0lbs/ft³

335 kg/m³. At 12% MC.

Specific Gravity

0.27/ 0.33 at 12% MC

Basic over green volume; second number at 12% moisture content.

Hardness, in context

A side-hardness measurement. Higher number, harder wood.

Shrinkage — radial / tangential / volumetric

2.3%radial

5.2%tangential

7.8%volumetric

On sourcing

Listed invasive in Hawaiʻi. Harvest is encouraged.

Not on CITES. IUCN Least Concern. Invasive in Hawaii. The state actively wants these trees down. Buying Hawaiian albizia funds the removal program — that is a sustainability win, not a tradeoff.

What it's for.

Bowls
Hollow forms
Art turnings
Decorative boxes
Light interior accents

Worth knowing.

One of the fastest-growing trees on earth. Tropical Storm Iselle in 2014 dropped a lot of them across Puna and made the public-safety case clear. Most Chocolate Albizia on the market is salvage from those removal projects.

Sources & references.

Falcataria moluccana — Wikipedia contributors
Albizia (Falcataria moluccana) — Hawaii Invasive Species Council / DLNR
Albizia in Hawaii — CTAHR, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Falcataria moluccana — Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER)
Paraserianthes falcataria — AgroForestryTree Database, World Agroforestry (ICRAF)
Albizia (Falcataria moluccana) — The Wood Database

Common questions.

Is Chocolate Albizia hard or soft?: It is soft and light, with a Janka hardness of just 480 lbf (2,140 N) per USDA Forest Products Laboratory values at 12% moisture content. Work it with sharp tools and light cuts, and stabilize spalted punky pockets with thin CA or resin before machining.
Can Chocolate Albizia be used outdoors?: No. It is non-durable to perishable, vulnerable to both fungus and insects, so it is for indoor use only. That same vulnerability is what produces its spalted chocolate figure.
What is Chocolate Albizia used for?: It suits bowls, hollow forms, art turnings, decorative boxes, and light interior accents. Most stock is salvage from Hawaiian removal projects, where the species is invasive and harvest is encouraged; Raw Heartwood kiln-dries its lumber to 6-8% moisture content.

From the library to your bench