The Ecology of Balsa (Ochroma lagopus Swartz) in Ecuador

Resumen

Balsa, the lightest of commercial timbers, has only one third the weight of soft pine. The number of uses and the demand for balsa lumber increased about three-fold during the second world war, but since the war the demand has remained at a level of more than half that of war-time. The distribution of balsa in the American tropics is from Puerto Rico westward through the other islands of the West Indies into southern Mexico and southward through Central America to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.