The material coefficients of Blot's anisotropic poroelasticity are interpreted following micromechanical considerations. The adoption of the micro-homogeneity and micro-isotropy assumptions leads to a most practical model for laboratory measurement: the material is defined within 21 drained elastic constants M(ijki). a solid grain bulk modulus K-s, and a Biot modulus M. To facilitate engineering applications, relations among Hookean, engineering and micromechanical constitutive constants are explicitly and extensively listed. These relations are used to convert a set of anisotropic data measured in traditional engineering tests under undrained condition to various continuum mechanical constants. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.