Description

Toon is a large deciduous tree generally with a wide spreading and handsome crown attaining a height of 45 m and a stem diameter of 2 m. In cities may be of a much smaller stature. Also known as Red Cedar, Toon is famous for it's fragrant red wood that is much sought after for use in furniture making, building and ornamental woodwork. The soft wood is easily worked and polishes to a rich red that is enhanced with age. Flowers are white, fragrant, in a large pyramidal panicle at the ends of the branchlets. Individual flowers about 5 mm long. Flowering period is in spring. Leaves are alternate, pinnate, consisting of five to seventeen leaflets. Leaflets opposite or irregularly alternate, ovate-lanceolate, 4-13 cm long, often drawn out to a long point at the tip, unequal at the base. Green both surfaces, paler beneath, red and downy when young.

Characteristics:

Leaves paripinnate;leaflets 5-15 1.5-4cm, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, entire, base acute, oblique, membranous; petiolules 5-19mm. Flowers 5-8 mm across, 4-5-merous, white, in axillary panicles. Sepal 5, free. Petals 5, oblong, margins ciliate. Stamens 5, inserted in the disc. Ovary 5-celled. Capsules 15-29mm across, 4-valved. Seeds winged. A five valved capsule. Seeds 25-30, oblong thin winged at both ends. Fruiting in August.

Medicinal Uses:

The timber is red in colour, easy to work and very highly valued. It was used extensively for furniture, wood panelling and construction, including shipbuilding, and was referred to as "red gold" by Australian settlers. Heavily and unsustainably exploited in the 19th and early 20th centuries, almost all the large trees have been cut out and the species is essentially commercially extinct. Availability of this timber is now limited.