Thread: Help identifying timber

looks like blue gum to me

I always associated blue gum with darker red colours, like the pic attached. Does it sometimes turn out quite pale?
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It's a young tree, probably planted way out of its normal range on a soil type it wouldn't have chosen for itself, so colour could be way off that of a 'normal' E. saligna or E. teriticornis growing in its preferred habitat. Colour, imo, is one of the least reliable features for id'ing any wood, in any case.

It's a smooth-barked Eucalypt, which narrows it down to just a hundred or so species, and unless you are unlucky & have dragged home one of the few that are considered "useless, even for firewood" (quoting a description for one of the gums I read in Bootle), you should enjoy it next winter.....

Cheers,

The timber matched the Wikipedia description for E. globulus - 'yellow-brown, fairly heavy, with an interlocked grain'. This is Southern Blue Gum or Tasmanian Blue Gum. There are a few subspecies, including one that grows naturally as far north as Canberra - and is planted as a decorative tree around Canberra (remember this from the late 70's when I did a lot of beekeeping work around those parts).

The problem with common names is that they derive from a lot of different viewpoints. For example red gums often have red timber, while blue gums usually have leaves with a pale blue tinge. (By the way IanW - E. teriticornis is a red gum I think).

The sad news is that E. globulus is difficult to season and is mainly used for heavy construction, fencing etc. Also see the Wood database details at Blue Gum | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood) That said it does get used for woodworking and turning, so don't give up.

Hi all,

thanks for the input - I appreciate it. Re globulous- that could be on the money. I will see if I can dig up a photo from google street view to help id it for sure..

Re that photo I attached of the timber which we split - is the tearing grain because of interlocking? Or do you not notice interlocking grain until your trying to plane it after it dries?

re “useless even for firewood”. I have read that before about bridgesiana/apple box. It was about the only information I could find on that species which made me wonder if it was true or if one guy had a bad log and strong opinions with the internet taking care of the rest!

brendan

Pics of The trees here. You’ll see there was a group of four, plus a lone wolf in the corner. Apologies for quality - it was the best I could get off google street view.461C20DA-549D-47DD-AFCD-B94798CC86C8.jpeg6DF01097-9A89-48C4-A4B5-9205E150FF5D.jpegA6788467-3AAE-43C0-BCFB-EA8E4A407BB3.jpeg

Originally Posted by bruceward51

....... (By the way IanW - E. teriticornis is a red gum I think)......

Bruce, 'tis indeed called "Forest Red Gum" south of the Qld border, to differentiate it from River Red Gum, I suppose, since both have red wood. In Qld, it's more often called "Blue gum", doubtless from the bluish colour of its bark at some times of the year, and RRG has a more restricted distribution up this way, so the two aren't likely to be confused. And yes indeed, common names are a great source of confusion.

As a bee man, you'd be well acquainted with identifying Eucalypts by flowers & fruits, trying to identify them from the wood alone, unless in a restricted locality, or unless it has some unique characteristic such as odour, is difficult to impossible at the best of times. Colours vary so much from locality to locality & even from tree to tree. Provenance can be a big help, except that street trees can be from anywhere, so that's unreliable.

What I was trying to get at was that id'ing wood from a picture is not very reliable...


Cheers,

A mate from the bee fraternity has just published a landmark book on the ‘Honey and Pollen Flora of South Eastern Australia’. (Even though it does not cover timber it is a great book) At the launch he talked about the minefield he had to navigate with plant names. Not only common names but also scientific names which change backwards and forwards.

one of those blue gums is in that camp - and I have seen it in Canberra too - used to be E stjohnii now a subspecies of E globulus. And yes I did identify it from buds, gum nuts and leaves.

A favorite memory was in a debate in an outback pub as to whether E ochrophloia (spelling dubious) was Napunya or Lapunya. The Harman chimed in that in those parts it was Lapunya.

By looking at the bark on those cut logs, lemon scented gum. Colour of the wood looks like lemon scented gum.