Red siris
Scientific name
Paraserianthes toona. Family: Leguminosae
Other names
Mackay cedar; acacia cedar
Description
- Medium-sized tree grows to 30m high.
- Stem to 1m diameter and not prominently buttressed.
- Bark is grey or brown, scaly in parts.
- Bark may show irregular depressions where bark scales have fallen off.
- Bark is pink when freshly cut.
Occurrence
- Distributed mainly in North Queensland coastal rainforests between Mackay and the Endeavour River.
- Timber availability is very limited.
Appearance
Colour
- Dark red with yellow streaks causing a striated pattern on the longitudinal surface.
- Sapwood is white and up to 50mm wide.
Grain
- Coarse, large pored with pronounced vessel lines.
- Occasional curly grain.
Uses
- Construction: sawn timber for general house framing, flooring, linings, mouldings and joinery.
- Decorative: furniture, turnery, joinery.
Properties
- Density: 720kg/m3 at 12% moisture content; about 1.4m3 of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
- Strength group: (S5) unseasoned, (SD6) seasoned (brackets indicate provisional value).
- Stress grades: F5, F7, F8, F11, (unseasoned); F7, F8, F11, F14 (seasoned) when visually stress-graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
- Joint groups: JD3 seasoned.
- Shrinkage to 12% MC: 4.5% (tangential), 2.0% (radial).
- Unit shrinkage: not available.
- Durability above-ground: Class 3 (life expectancy 7–15 years).
- Durability in-ground: Class 3 (life expectancy 5–15 years).
- Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood is susceptible to lyctid borer attack.
- Termite resistance: not resistant.
- Preservation: sapwood readily impregnates with preservative, but penetration of heartwood is negligible using available commercial processes.
- Seasoning: satisfactorily dries using conventional air and kiln seasoning.
- Hardness: moderately hard (rated 3 on a 6-class scale) to indent and work with hand tools.
- Machining: machines, and turns well, to a smooth surface.
- Fixing: no difficulty using standard fittings and fastenings.
- Gluing: satisfactorily bonds using standard procedures.
- Finishing: readily accepts paint, stain and polish.
Identification features
General characteristics
- Sapwood: creamy yellow, distinct from heartwood.
- Heartwood: red to red-brown, often with yellow or lighter-coloured streaks.
- Texture: coarse, grain usually straight, but occasionally interlocked.
Wood structure
- Growth rings: absent.
- Vessels: medium to large, uniformly distributed, solitary, but also in radial chains with an infrequent cluster; obvious vessel lines on longitudinal surfaces; frequent dark red deposits in the vessels.
- Parenchyma (soft tissue)plentiful, aliform and confluent; lighter-coloured sheaths of soft tissue around the vessels are distinct on all surfaces.
- Rays: fine, invisible without a lens; ripple marks occasionally present.
Other features
- Burning splinter test: match-size splinter burns to a partial dark grey or black ash filament.
- Figure (pattern): parenchyma around the vessels, combined with the coloured streaks, give this timber an attractive figure.
Research and resources
- Boland, DJ, Brooker, MIH, Chippendale, GM, Hall, N, Hyland, BPM, Johnston, RD, Kleinig, DA and Turner, JD 2006, Forest trees of Australia, 5th ed., CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
- Bootle, K 2005, Wood in Australia: Types, properties and uses, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, Sydney.
- Ilic, J 1991, CSIRO atlas of hardwoods, Crawford House Press, Bathurst, Australia.
- Queensland Government, DAF 2018, Construction timbers in Queensland: Properties and specifications for satisfactory performance of construction timbers in Queensland. Class 1 and Class 10 buildings, Books 1 & 2, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Brisbane.
- Last reviewed: 12 Dec 2018
- Last updated: 12 Dec 2018