Thread: Australian Ebony

Kev,

The latin name you might be looking for is Diospyros humilis (or in older books Diospyros ferrea). I've seen this species within spitting distance of the NT border in NW Qld and according to this link: http://florabase.calm.wa.gov.au/brow...vel=s&id=17902 it looks to occur across to the top of WA.

Your description of the bark matches what I recall and the fruits look just like tiny persimmons. Not suprising since persimmon is in the same family -ebenaceae. Another non-native relative from the same genus is black sapote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_sapote. Yum!


Luke

Australian ebony also grows about 4 hours drive from here. It is a part of the diospyros family. The tree I have harvested is Queensland ebony (diospyros ferrera). The tree has black tasselated bark, deeply fissured into about 25mm square blocks. The tree here is slow growing and the sawn stumps will sucker. The leaves are oval and smallish, similar to a cooktown ironwood and are dark green that stands out from the other trees in the area. The trees we found were growing in amongst rocks in very hard country. The seeds apparently were harvested and eaten by country kids instead of peanuts. The wood is not of uniform black but often has flashes of terracotta red and often quite large portions of a creamy white wood. Sapwood is narrow, about 12mm, and is indistiguishable from the white portions without an iodine test. The wood is very fine grained, very firm and quite heavy. Does this sound like the timber you have?
Jim

Originally Posted by powderpost

Australian ebony also grows about 4 hours drive from here. It is a part of the diospyros family. The tree I have harvested is Queensland ebony (diospyros ferrera). The tree has black tasselated bark, deeply fissured into about 25mm square blocks. The tree here is slow growing and the sawn stumps will sucker. The leaves are oval and smallish, similar to a cooktown ironwood and are dark green that stands out from the other trees in the area. The trees we found were growing in amongst rocks in very hard country. The seeds apparently were harvested and eaten by country kids instead of peanuts. The wood is not of uniform black but often has flashes of terracotta red and often quite large portions of a creamy white wood. Sapwood is narrow, about 12mm, and is indistiguishable from the white portions without an iodine test. The wood is very fine grained, very firm and quite heavy. Does this sound like the timber you have?
Jim

Yes sounds very much like it ,I dont actually have this timber ,but I know who has some.
I just refered to my book "Topend Native Plants" by John Brock and Diospyros ferrea var. reticulata has been renamed to D.compacta and grows here in my district .
In fact I think there is a stand of this timber just a few hundred metres from where I live .



There is another Diospyros ( maritima ) that grows near Darwin also in Qld and Indonesia and Samoa .I'm not sure if the timber from this tree exhibits the same qualities.It is a more costal dwelling tree that the compacta ,which is more inland ,along fresh water streams .
Thanks for the links Luke

Thanks for information ,I will check out the trees nearby.
Conkerberry ,from a search looks to be Carrisa lanceolata ,which is from Central Austarlia and is not listed in my book .


Cheers
Kev

interesting, wouldnt mind a smallish chunk for the sample collection, may happy to trade other woods or cover postage..

Saw a few green blocks of it at a WWW show.

Originally Posted by powderpost

Australian ebony also grows about 4 hours drive from here. It is a part of the diospyros family. The tree I have harvested is Queensland ebony (diospyros ferrera). The tree has black tasselated bark, deeply fissured into about 25mm square blocks. The tree here is slow growing and the sawn stumps will sucker. The leaves are oval and smallish, similar to a cooktown ironwood and are dark green that stands out from the other trees in the area. The trees we found were growing in amongst rocks in very hard country. The seeds apparently were harvested and eaten by country kids instead of peanuts. The wood is not of uniform black but often has flashes of terracotta red and often quite large portions of a creamy white wood. Sapwood is narrow, about 12mm, and is indistiguishable from the white portions without an iodine test. The wood is very fine grained, very firm and quite heavy. Does this sound like the timber you have?
Jim

Does this look like it Jim?? I've been trying to identify this bugga for ages - one lone tree west of here.

The foliage certainly looks close to the image in my book ,and the bark looks very much like what I obseved on the logs last week end .Unfortunately the book I have does not show a picture of the entire tree.
I would look for a dead branch on that tree and cut it to see what it is like ,
As staed bt the fellow who was showing me his sample the sap wood rots off the heart wood over time .

If I can get my hands on some you would be welcome to a sample .
I need to do a couple of missions around my area to see if what I think is this tree is so.

The CSIRO list 10 named Diospyros that grow in the top of Oz. D.humilis and D.maratima grow right across the top from the WA coast to the FNQ coast and the distribution maps show them growing in the dry areas as well as along the coast. All the others seem to be confined to coastal regions.
They don't list a D. ferrera which suggests it is also known as one of the others and has has a name change.
The common names include persimmon and ebony.

Barry Hicks

Vern, looks very much like the ebony tree I know. Similar terrain too. Looks like I will have to come out and positively identify it for you... . Diospyros species are quite varied and grow in quite differing environments. There are some specimen growing on Green Island and the town common in Townsville, very different from the country around Emerald and the northern Territory.
Jim

Originally Posted by powderpost

............. Looks like I will have to come out and positively identify it for you... . Diospyros species are quite varied and grow in quite differing environments. There are some specimen growing on Green Island and the town common in Townsville, very different from the country around Emerald and the northern Territory.
Jim

You would be most welcome Jim! Next time I go to Lochington I might take a sample (not the chainsaw type just yet!) to send to the herbarium - this one has really got me intrigued now

Originally Posted by Woodlee

If I can get my hands on some you would be welcome to a sample .
I need to do a couple of missions around my area to see if what I think is this tree is so.

ok thanks Woodlee, any samples always appreciated mate.

Vern, nice pics of the lone tree out your way, certainly fits the description.
Pretty sure i have seen a similar tree round this way somwehere

Originally Posted by TTIT

Next time I go to Lochington I might take a sample (not the chainsaw type just yet!) to send to the herbarium - this one has really got me intrigued now

You're not the only one! For gawd's sake, take a camera for documentation!

Kev, your post brings back fond memories of many good years of living in Darwin (there's probably never a bad year up there!). I was a keen top end gardener.
Diospyros means "fruit of the gods" or "divine fruit" ( depending on your interpreter ) and was well known to aboriginal appetites. In Singapore the fruit has been used to flavour ice cream and drinks. D.Kaki is the Persimmon tree and D.Discolour is "Butterfruit" which is planted in Darwin streetscapes. D. Calycantha is a common tree in the monsoon vine forests around Darwin - East Point, Howard Springs, Berry Springs, etc. D.Australis or Illawara Black Plum is a larger tree of the species and D.Pentamera (Myrtle Ebony) from Sth.Qld is probably the giant at over 40 mtrs.
Ebony (black wood) can be found in varying degrees in several different species in the entire genus. Some only produce a narrow "speckled" black heartwood while others produce an "intense" black wood that almost consumes the entire trunk.
The tessellated bark is the clue in your description that links your timber to Diospyros but there is another native of the top end, called Maba, that produces black heartwood. Maba Humilus is a small tree to about 10 mtrs and produces extremely hard black heartwood (possibly harder than Ebony) with yellow, white, and pink sapwood. Interestingly there is also Diospyros Mabacea (which means Maba-like) from Tweed River area. M.Fasciculosa known as Qld. Ebony grows around Rockhampton.
Kev, what do you know about top end Ironwood? Have you ever worked with it?