Tulip plum
Scientific name
Pleiogynium timorense. Family: Anacardiaceae
Other names
Burdekin plum
Description
- Grows to 30m high and 1.0m stem diameter, but it's usually much smaller.
- Trunk is often irregular in cross-section.
- Bark is dark brown, very scaly, rough and sheds in oblong pieces.
Occurrence
- Distributed mainly in wetter areas along the Queensland coast:
- Maryborough to Townsville
- Cairns and Atherton regions.
- Sawn timber is available but it's not common.
Appearance
Colour
- Heartwood is pale to dark reddish brown, usually streaked with darker bands.
- Sapwood is usually pinkish brown.
Grain
- Close grained, fine texture.
- Usually straight.
Uses
- Decorative: cabinet making, turnery, walking sticks, umbrella handles.
- Others: previously used in smokers' pipes, and brush stock.
Properties
- Density: 930kg/m3 at 12% moisture content; about 1.1m3 of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
- Strength groups: (S3) unseasoned, SD3 seasoned (brackets indicate provisional value).
- Stress grades: F8, F11, F14, F17 (unseasoned); F14, F17, F22, F27 (seasoned) when visually stress-graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
- Joint groups: JD2 seasoned.
- Shrinkage to 12% MC: not available.
- Unit shrinkage: not available.
- Durability above-ground: Class 4 (life expectancy less than 7 years).
- Durability in-ground: Class 4 (life expectancy less than 5 years).
- Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood 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: hard (rated 2 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: as with most high-density species, machine and prepare surface immediately before gluing.
- Finishing: readily accepts stain, polish and paint.
Identification features
General characteristics
- Sapwood: pinkish brown.
- Heartwood: pale to dark reddish brown with occasional darker bands formed by latewood.
- Texture: fine and uniform.
Wood structure
- Growth rings: sometimes indicates growth zones.
- Vessels: small, uniformly distributed, except in latewood at the end of a growth zone (where present); mostly in short radial multiples, some solitary and with an occasional cluster; vessel lines just visible on longitudinal surfaces; frequent tyloses; some deposits of extraneous material visible in vessels and rays.
- Parenchyma (soft tissue): indefinite under a lens.
- Rays: fine.
Other features
- Burning splinter test: crackles as it burns to a full white ash.
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.
- Standards Australia, 2000, AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes, Standards Australia International, Strathfield, NSW.
- Last reviewed: 12 Dec 2018
- Last updated: 12 Dec 2018