The Dominican Republic is famous for its hardwood, two types of which, Guayac?n (lignum vitae) and Caoba (mahogany), were responsible for keeping this island afloat economically when it was essentially abandoned by Spain and left to its own resources. (well, that and cattle)
You can still find Taino artefacts carved from these woods, which are incredibly dense and durable. There are others as well, but those two are the most well known.
It appears as well that Dominican mahogany is the very best, and that which comes from other places, such as Indonesia, is not quite as good. However, much of what you see here advertised as Caoba is not Caoba, because there are laws now prohibiting people from cutting down the few trees that are left (you can of course obtain the real stuff too). The furniture salespeople use other woods and then paint them dark. That dark color is not natural to the wood by the way. This type of staining was used in the 19th century for much mahogany wood, and thus the tradition is to stain it dark. with time, of course, the wood itself will take on a dark patina, but when you cut open a piece of mahogany you will find that the wood has a beautiful almost cherry tone to it. The darkness comes from the very very tight grain, which appears like black specks everywhere. I got hold of an old trapiche of pure mahogany (they sell for over 2000 US in NYC) and sanded it down, then oiled it, and now a few years later the thing has a beautiful deep brown luster, but with a distinct reddish cast.
There are also projects under way to begin cultivating mahogany, as they do in other countries, on "farms" for harvesting.
If you are interested in growing these hardwoods yourself, then by all means give it a go. The people at the Botanical Gardens can probably help you. One other wood you should look into is the Ebano Verde, a member of themagnolia family unique to this island.