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< All Topics
Blush alder
Updated24/10/2024
By
Scientific name
Sloanea australis spp. Parviflora. Family: Elaeocarpaceae
Other names
maiden’s blush; blush carrobean
Description
- Tall slender tree grows to 30m high.
- Stem diameter up to 1m.
- Trunk is often irregular, crooked, and buttressed at the base.
- Bark is about 6mm thick, rough, scaly and brown.
Occurrence
- Widely distributed throughout the coastal rainforests of the Illawarra district, New South Wales to the Atherton Tableland, North Queensland.
Appearance
Colour
- Heartwood usually pink to reddish-brown.
- Sapwood is distinctly lighter.
Grain
- Close and even textured. No obvious figure (pattern) but when dressed, surfaces have a silky sheen.
Uses
Construction
- Unseasoned sawn timber for general house framing.
- Dressed seasoned flooring, lining, mouldings and joinery.
Decorative
- Furniture.
- Plywood.
- Shop.
- Office fixtures.
- Joinery.
- Turnery.
- Carving.
- Picture frames.
Others
- Light boat building.
- Brush stock.
- Broom handles.
Properties
- Density: 625kg/m3 at 12% moisture content; about 1.6m3 of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
- Strength groups: S5 unseasoned, SD6 seasoned.
- 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: 5.0% (tangential), 2.5% (radial).
- 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 lyctine borer attack.
- Termite resistance: resistant.
- Preservation: sapwood easily impregnates with preservatives but penetration of heartwood is negligible using available commercial processes.
- Seasoning: dries satisfactorily using conventional air and kiln seasoning methods.
- Hardness: firm (rated 4 on a 6-class scale) to indents and working with hand tools.
- Machining: machines, and turns well, to a smooth surface.
- Fixing: no difficulty in using standard fittings and fastenings.
- Gluing: bonds satisfactorily using standard procedures.
- Finishing: readily accept stain, polish and paint.
Identification features
General characteristics
- Sapwood: lighter colour than heartwood.
- Heartwood: pink to red-brown.
- Texture: fine and uniform, grain is occasionally interlocked.
Wood structure
- Growth rings: absent.
- Vessels: numerous, very small, indistinct without a lens, solitary and in radial groups of less than 4; without tyloses and deposits.
- Parenchyma (soft tissue): not visible under a lens.
- Rays: 2 kinds—large (visible without a lens) and fine (difficult to see even with a hand lens).
- Other features: burning.
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 edn, 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.