Unknown eucalyptus

[isaac3d]

Are there any eucalyptus experts out there who might know what species is shown in the attached images?
I had a delivery of eucalyptus logs from a local tree surgeon and I was intrigued by the fact that the inner core (heartwood?) was lighter than the outer layer (sapwood?).
The sapwood (if that is what it is) is reddish brown whilst the inner wood is a pale beige with some darker areas in some of the slices. I am used to the sapwood of trees being lighter than the heartwood in most species but this is my first eucalyptus timber.
The bark is thick and spongy (1 to 2 cm or more) and peels off easily in large sheets. The bark of the main stem is flaky and darker than the branches. The branches have beige coloured smooth bark which is also spongy and peels off easily.
See the images attached. Please ignore the fetching pink acrylic paint on the ends of the logs which I'm keeping to rip in to boards. I have read that eucalyptus has to dry very slowly to avoid severe warping etc. The logs I'll make in to boards will be sawn up as soon as possible. The rest is firewood (and will also be chopped up as soon as possible).
There were a few leaves with the logs and they are lanceolate in shape, about 10 to 15 cm long about 1 to 1.5 cm wide in the middle. My research on the internet suggests that this might be Red River Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), but I'm far from certain of this.

 

[yetloh]

I would suggest finding an Australian woodworking forum and posting on that.

 

[Orraloon]

It may well be but there are a lot of eucs with red wood. That said I have not seen that light coloured heartwood on anything with red wood but it may be down to the tree being on the young side. Only bits I have used were already sawn and I am no expert. As yetloh suggested try the Australian woodwork forum. We have a few members that mill and sell wood so would be much more expert than me. Anyhow whatever it is you should have some good bits to turn.
Regards
John

 

[Terrytpot]

We had 2 eucalyptus trees in our garden which like most of the species had very shallow roots. A quick google tells me it was in December 2010 that the ”beast from the east” struck us and pretty much killed both of mine, or so we were told by a tree surgeon who recommended to us and our similarly affected neighbours, to have them felled as the frost had been that hard it had frozen the root structure for so long it was akin to gangrene in that removing the capacity to circulate , the parts cut off just die. We persisted with one of ours as it had loads of shoots of new growth from low down on its trunk and even though the trunk did indeed die and rot away (from about 2 or 3 foot from the ground) those shoots of growth have replaced the original tree quite nicely. Just wondering if your tree may have been similarly affected by something in its lifetime and this colour aberration is the result..

 

[isaac3d]

May well be something like that. I have read that eucalyptus can show colour variation in the wood which may be due to environmental stress.
I don't do turning (yet), so I'll make some thick boards from the logs, then if they do warp, I can plane them down. It looks like they may make some pretty timber.

 

[Adam W.]

If I remember correctly there are nearly 1000 species of eucalypt.

But looking further it narrows down to only 35 which are hardy enough to grow in the UK....

https://www.eucalyptus-trees.co.uk/AboutGumTrees/eucalyptus-species.html

 

[isaac3d]

Thanks Adam.W, I had already seen that site but unfortunately they just show leaves rather than cut timber. I notice that Red River Gum is not in their list.

 

[Adam W.]

I was looking at the bark, as it seemed the most distinctive feature and quite unusual for a eucalipt. I always find that a lot of eucalipt leaves look similar and you'd need a good picture of the vessel arrangement of the timber to be able to identify it that way.

 

[gregmcateer]

Get the pieces you're keeping split asap - they will crack, split, twist and challenge you at every turn. Can be beautiful, though. Whatever you do it will probably warp massively.
It does burn, but be attentive if on an open fire - the sap spits and spurts all over the show