Any of various Latin American and Californian trees having hard, heavy wood used for construction, shipbuilding, etc.; especially (a) the valley oak of California, Quercus lobata; (b) the Central and South American timber tree Platymiscium pinnatum (family Fabaceae); (c) a West Indian species of catalpa, C. longissima (now rare); (d) (more fully "roble beech") a species of southern beech, Nothofagus obliqua.