Rose mahogany

• Medium-sized tree growing to 40m high.
• Stem grows more than 1m diameter.
• Stem is often flanged at the base but not prominently buttressed.
• Bark is light brown, scaly, and sheds in oblong flakes.
• Crown is usually dense and rounded with dark green, shiny foliage.

• Found scattered along the east coast from Wyong, New South Wales, to southern Queensland.
• In Queensland, mainly in the ranges around Killarney, Tamborine Mountain and the Mistake Ranges.
• Sawn timber is not readily available.

Colour

• Truewood ranges from red-brown to dark red.
• Sapwood ranges from light brown to cream.

Grain

• Moderately close, often interlocked.
• Texture is uniform.
• Soft tissue (parenchyma) gives a slight figure (pattern) to tangential surfaces.

• Construction: past use in sawn timber in general house framing, flooring, moulding and joinery but rarely used in these applications now.
• Decorative: panelling, furniture, plywood, shop and office fixtures, joinery, turnery, carving, inlay work.
• Others: past use for wine casks and brush stocks.

• Density: 705kg/m³ at 12% moisture content; about 1.4m³ of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
• Strength groups: S5 unseasoned, SD5 seasoned.
• Stress grades: F5, F7, F8, F11 (unseasoned); F8, F11, F14, F17 (seasoned) when visually stress-graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded hardwoods for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: J2 unseasoned, JD3 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 12% MC: 4.3% (tangential), 2.5% (radial).
• Unit shrinkage: 0.29% (tangential), 0.18% (radial)—these values apply to timber reconditioned after seasoning.
• Durability above-ground: Class 3 (life expectancy 7–15 years).
• Durability in-ground: Class 3 (life expectancy 5–15 years).
• Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood is susceptible to lyctid borer attack.
• Termite resistance: not resistant.
• Preservation: sapwood readily impregnates with preservative, but penetration of heartwood is negligible using currently available commercial processes.
• Seasoning: satisfactorily dries using conventional air and kiln seasoning.
• Hardness: moderately hard (rated 3 on a 6-class scale) to indent work with hand tools.
• Machining: machines and turns well due to a natural oiliness of the wood.
• Fixing: no difficulty using standard fittings and fastenings.
• Gluing: satisfactorily bonds using standard procedures.
• Finishing: readily accepts paint, stain and polish; however, occasional pieces develop beads of free aromatic oil that stain the wood and produce a dull blotchy bloom under the polished surface—to overcome this problem avoid using timber with freshly dressed surfaces or, if staining has occurred, sponge the surface with alcohol.

General characteristics

• Sapwood: light brown to cream.
• Heartwood: red-brown, may have small dark oily patches on longitudinal surfaces.
• Texture: uniform, grain often interlocked.

Wood structure

• Growth rings: absent.
• Vessels: medium; uniformly distributed, mostly in short radial multiples but some solitary; obvious vessel lines; dark red vessel contents are common.
• Parenchyma: abundant in regularly spaced apotracheal bands, slightly lighter in colour than the background—on dressed tangential surfaces these parenchyma bands give rise to an attractive figure (pattern).
• Rays: fine, visible with a lens.

Other features

• Burning splinter test: produces a full white ash. This, together with the distinctive odour, distinguishes the species from the very similar, and closely related timber, miva mahogany, which burns to a charcoal.
• Odour: freshly cut wood has a distinctive aromatic odour.

• Boland, DJ, Brooker, MIH, Chippendale, GM, Hall, N, Hyland, BPM, Johnston, RD, Kleinig, DA and Turner, JD 2006, Forest trees of Australia, 5th ed., CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
• Bootle, K 2005, Wood in Australia: Types, properties and uses, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, Sydney.
• Ilic, J 1991, CSIRO atlas of hardwoods, Crawford House Press, Bathurst, Australia.
• Queensland Government, DAF 2018, Construction timbers in Queensland: Properties and specifications for satisfactory performance of construction timbers in Queensland. Class 1 and Class 10 buildings, Books 1 & 2, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Brisbane.
• Standards Australia, 2000, AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes, Standards Australia International, Strathfield, NSW.