Thread: silky oak... how do you know?

"how many thing are called silky oak"

Get a copy of "Technical Pamphlet No 2" from Department of Forestry, Queensland". There are no less than 24 "silky oaks" of one sort or another. It will give you the 'standard trade' name, 'local' name, botanical name, density and lyctid susceptibility.
Jim

I've had a trawl of the qld.gov sites various & silky oak don't even give me a hit. theres all sorts of "cool stuff" but no silky that i could find.
anybody got a coppy of said techincal note they can slap on the scanner.
cheers

the VWA site gives a pretty good list, however some of these are conditional ie dorrigo silky oak etc. All the cardwellia I have seen is a deep brown red, southern ie grevillea tends to be a lighter pink when fresh cut and ages to a deep gold.

Hi Soundman, I was going to tell you that if you do a search for silky oak at this site it wil give you a long list of species, but the site seems to be down???:confused:
http://www.aussiewoods.info/

Cheers
Michael

Why does it matter Soundman, in this case?

Its just nice to know.
cheers

I am constantly amazed at the diversity of Queensland timber. No fewer than 30 Silky Oaks have been named historically. Check it out in Pamphlet no. 2. They are:

<table class="MsoTableGrid" style="border: medium none ; border-collapse: collapse;" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr style=" 108.35pt;"><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; 194.4pt; 108.35pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top" width="259">Carnarvonia araliifolia
Alloxyllon pinnatum
Alloxyllon wickhamii
Stenocarpus reticulatus
Opisthiolepis heterophylla
Bleasdalea bleasdalei
Musgravea heterophylla
Darlingia darlingiana
Sphalmium racemosum
Musgravea stenostachya
Athertonia diversifolia
Grevillea pteridiifolia
Grevillea baileyana
Neorites kevediana
Grevillea hilliana
Helicia lamingtoniana
Lomatia fraxinifolia
Oritis excelsa
Austromuellera trinervia
Cardwellia sublimis
Stenocarpus salignus
Darlingia ferruginea
Placospermum coriaceum
Macadamia grandis syn.hildebrandii
Grevillea robusta
Buckinghamia celisissima
Macadamia whelanii
Stenocarpus sinuatus
Xylomelum pyriforme
Xylomelum scottianum

</td><td style="border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(236, 233, 216); border- 1pt 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; 144pt; 108.35pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top" width="192">Caledonian Oak<o></o>
Dorrigo Oak
Satin Oak<o></o>
Black Silky Oak<o></o>
Blush Silky Oak<o></o>
Blush Silky Oak<o></o>
Briar Silky Oak<o></o>
Brown Silky Oak<o></o>
Buff Silky Oak<o></o>
Crater Silky Oak<o></o>
Cream Silky Oak<o></o>
Ferny-Leaved Silky Oak<o></o>
Findlay's Silky Oak<o></o>
Fishtail Silky Oak<o></o>
Hill's Silky Oak<o></o>
Lamington's Silky Oak<o></o>
Lomatia Silky Oak<o></o>
Mountain Silky Oak<o></o>
Mueller's Silky Oak<o></o>
Northern Silky Oak<o></o>
Red Silky Oak<o></o>
Rose Silky Oak<o></o>
Rose Silky Oak<o></o>
Satin Silky Oak<o></o>
Southern Silky Oak<o></o>
Spotted Silky Oak<o></o>
Whelan's Silky Oak<o></o>
White Silky Oak<o></o>
Pear Silky Oak<o></o>
Pear Silky Oak<o></o>
<o></o>
</td></tr></tbody></table>

John Elliott.

Originally Posted by John Elliott

No fewer than 30 Silky Oaks have been named

Thanks John,
:eek: :eek: :eek: That list has me gobsmacked!! I don't think I can call anything just plain "silky oak" again! :eek:

Cheers,

So common names are close to useless, and botanical names not much better since nature ain't a venn diagram!

I just wish I had that number of trees that were growing nearby that were even remotely close to a silky oak, the "true" one Grevilla robusta's natural distrubution stops abot 300 km noth of where I live. I might have to move to Qld if I could stand the humidity.

Originally Posted by Ivor

I just wish I had that number of trees that were growing nearby that were even remotely close to a silky oak, the "true" one Grevilla robusta's natural distrubution stops abot 300 km noth of where I live. I might have to move to Qld if I could stand the humidity.

I'd dispute Grevillia Robusta being the "true" silky oak. Up here it's known as Southern Silky Oak whereas Cardwellia Sublimis is known as Northern Silky Oak. I'd say that more Cardwellia was milled and used than Grevillia. It was so common up here it was used for framing houses as well as for joinery. There's a railway siding a few kms from here called Oak Forest, guess what used to get carted down to the coast by the wagon load?

Mick

Good list there John, I used to reley on my Ausie timber buyers guide. I didn't realise there were so many different members of the sily oak family