Since there seems to be quite a bit of confusion as to the difference(s) between all of the various sub-species/brands of IPE I figured I would add my two cents after much research and probing!In our area (Chicago) there have been a couple of large public installations of Pau Lope branded IPE. The BP Amoco pedestrian bridge an Millennium Park in downtown Chicago and The Esplanade at the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Northbrook, IL. As they are both holding up quite well to their environments and since my wife & I love the look of real wood we did some research as we are about to replace and expand a multi-level deck on our home. As many of you probably know, IPE is a group of woods NOT a particular species. What this means is that someone selling ordinary IPE decking (or “mixed tropical hardwood”) is, more than likely, selling a mix of sub-species. What brand names like Mataverde, Pau Lope, and Diamond offer are a gaurantee of pure species tabebuia.spp with a clean environmental paper trail and very consistent performance. “Fine Woodworking” did quite a nice feature on this in their May/June 2002 issue titled, simply: IPE.  We also discovered through the lumber dealer that provided the material for both of the above mentioned jobs that the Pau Lope brand name became Mataverde over the summer due to a sale or buy out. The lumber dealer referred us to their distributor for tech. help (they are very good) and, if anyone is interested I would be happy to share more details. These folks service most of Illinois and, if nothing else, can give you a baseline cost/etc. Thank you to all here for your input and help over the years.