There are three types of nanmu or cedar wood -xiang (fragrant) nan, jinsi (golden silk) nan and shui (water) nan. Xiangnan is slightly purplish and fragrant with beautiful grains while jinsinan has golden silk designs in its grains and shuinan has a loose and soft texture. Important architectural structures in Ming dynasty (1368-1644) were made of this wood as it rarely decays. In daily use today however, nanmu is seldom used as it is not as brilliant looking as other hardwoods.
