Thread: chinese tallow tree bowls

G,day
Here are a couple of chinese tallow tree, sapium sebiferum , bowls .These are a common street tree where I live .The first three pictures are of a bowl 230mm diam x 75mm high and the next two are of a bowl 280mm diam x 75mm high .
This timber seems to be photosensitive . The blanks were roughed out about 18 months ago and turned completely white as they dried .When cutting into the roughed out bowl, the freshly cut timber is a mixture of of mostly chocolate/grey with some white .In the first bowl can be seen a white band on the outside but this does not extend through to the inside of the bowl. I can only assume that I took only a small amount of timber off the roughed out blank in this section when I was finish turning the bowl .
I have eight or so blanks to finish so it will be interesting to see how deep the white goes .
Has anyone else noticed this phenomenom? This is not just a heartwood / sapwood situation .
Ted