logwood

Noun

logwood (countable and uncountable, plural logwoods)

1. A tree of species Haematoxylum campechianum, in the legume family, of great economic importance and growing throughout Central America.
   • The green flanks of the uplands, all feathered with bamboo interspersed with the dark, glinting green of breadfruit and the sudden Bengal fire of Flame of the Forest, gave way to the lower forests of ebony, mahogany, mahoe and logwood.1954, Ian Fleming, “The Undertaker's Wind”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 181

   Synonyms:

   bloodwood, blackwood, bloodwood tree, blockwood, bluewood, campeachy tree, campeachy wood, campeche logwood, campeche wood, Jamaica wood, logwood tree

2. Any of various trees of the genus Xylosma in the willow family.
3. Wood of any of these trees.
   • In the latter part of the eighteenth century in Maryland, [Easter] eggs were boiled in logwood which dyed the shells crimson, and the patterns would be scratched away with a pin.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 164