Thread: Tree ID

Must be a southern species Rob, the leaf-form & flowers are totally unfamiliar to me. If no-one recognises it for you, grab a couple of those flowering branch tips & press them between dry sheets of newspaper, then you can take them to the herbarium sometime when you are in the big smoke. That's the most reliable id you'll get.

The wood you've 'found' sounds interesting. I love 'discovering' local species in my back yard. There are probably dozens that we could use for special purposes that have never been tried by anyone so we don't know what we are missing...
Cheers,

The bark on the tree looks just like an Hakea (Pincushion) that I have. The leaves are different, but it may be part of the same family.

My daughter uses an app on her phone, she just takes a pic of the foliage and it tells her within seconds what it is not sure which one she uses, but had a quick look inline and found this Australian Tree ID - Tree identification

Originally Posted by Camelot

My daughter uses an app on her phone, she just takes a pic of the foliage and it tells her within seconds what it is not sure which one she uses, but had a quick look inline and found this Australian Tree ID - Tree identification

I did give one of those a quick try the other day and it gave me 4 options but none of them looked to close . I will try again possibly.

Ian. A trip to the Herbarium would be an interesting thing to do.

I do have this book and think it must be in there but its a bit of a guess. There seems to be plenty that are similar at a glance.

IMG_3046a.jpg

I came up with this. The Monotoca elliptica seems to fit the description and area of growth. Just guessing at what looks closest . Maybe I should read a bit more of that book and learn how to use it. None of the mature trees are 2 Metres There all easily 5 Metres.

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By the looks of the pictures I took a few days ago and the dates in the listing it's just coming into flower early possibly ?

What do you reckon?

Originally Posted by IanW

Must be a southern species Rob, the leaf-form & flowers are totally unfamiliar to me. If no-one recognises it for you, grab a couple of those flowering branch tips & press them between dry sheets of newspaper, then you can take them to the herbarium sometime when you are in the big smoke. That's the most reliable id you'll get.

I hadn't thought of that Ian. I think Ill take the opportunity to at least press the flowering branch tips. The opportunity may arise where I could go to the Herbarium but I doubt it. Ive been thinking about this for a while. I have another interested wood working friend who I could show the pressings and book to.

Originally Posted by IanW

The wood you've 'found' sounds interesting. I love 'discovering' local species in my back yard. There are probably dozens that we could use for special purposes that have never been tried by anyone so we don't know what we are missing...
Cheers,

That's right. Ive been doing quite a bit of it the last few years and although some of the sizes of the stuff Ive cut isn't large enough for furniture, the quality and variation of some of the figure and grain has amazed me.

Theres quite a few FB groups for plant ID could be worth trying there?
What Plant Is That?? (Australia.)

Rob, I've got the same book, so I had a quick look. I think you are in the right family, at least. If the fruits that follow match ("drupes" are fleshy fruits, usually with with one seed), you can probably safely call it a "broome heath" (Monotoca) as a working name. In your pics I though the leaves were opposite rather than alternate, but it's very hard to tell from the pic when they are so dense. I'll show your pics to my botanist mate & see if he can id it for me.

I've just put the same book back on the shelf. Too many close matches, keep watching for the flowers.

Those previous pictures above were from a tree under the canopy of taller trees and gum trees .
I stopped at another this morning that gets the morning sun and its fully in flower with bees and other flying native insects going for it . So I took more pictures and some cuttings and pressed them . The flowers are so small though they are at the limit of my phone cameras ability I think. One open flower is about 3mm wide. I could get better pictures with my other camera and the Macro lens if its needed.
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And some of the timber pieces Ive cut and dried.

IMG_3054ab.jpg

The handle on left is turned from the timber and its up against a boxwood chisel handle and a boxwood arm on a Plane .
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Rob

The last pic of the flowers on the board are pretty good, Rob, & should be enough for someone who knows their local botany to name it. I'll show it to my botanist fried, but he'll be out of his normal habitat so probably won't recognise it instantly. The first thing he'll ask me is for leaf dimensions - can you give me a range of length x width?

This thread has goaded me to get serious about identifying two small trees in our backyard that have puzzled me for a while. I've managed to figure out a few other interesting trees I have, but haven't been able to pin these down. They are in out-of the way spots where I don't see them so often, & by the time I think to check them for flowers, they are almost finished & far too ragged for id purposes. But the days are getting longer - they'll flower again soon, so this year I'll try to remember to take some samples to the herbarium, it's only a short drive from my place, so no excuses for my laziness so far. One might be a native olive (my vert tentative diagnosis), which is a lovely turning/threading wood, but they are also nice specimen trees to have, so they won't be feeling the chainsaw, but if any blow over in a storm, they sure won't be fed to a chipper....

Cheers,

Ian. This is getting more interesting as I'm doing this .
The pictures have made me realize this is looking like the Tree Broom - heath. It'd be great if your friend can shed more light on it.

I just took these . Still with the phone camera.

IMG_3084a.jpg IMG_3083a.jpg
The description of the leaf says " Dark green above and Whitish green underside and finely striate beneath" Ha ! That's looking good.
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So if this is the tree in the book. The common name would be the Tree Broom , and its a Heath ? Or is it Tree Broom-heath ? pronounced Tree Broom dash heath?
And the Botanical name is Monotoca elliptica?
In the family of EPACRIDACEAE

I think Ill be keeping a keen eye on the gumtrees around here and see if I can try to ID them.
The flowers are way out of reach though.

Rob

Of the 18 Heath in this EPACRIDACEAE family in my book the only two that come close are the one above and I just found another that has the same location . The Bark sounds darker. And the picture of the flowers is close but possibly a little different looking.

So the thing to do for my one is wait for the fruit ? The Drupes?
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Any idea how long after flowering the Drupes form? A month or two ?

Rob.

Originally Posted by auscab

Any idea how long after flowering the Drupes form? A month or two ?

Rob.

I get brewers Drupe after about 12 beers