Dysoxylum rufum
Encyclopedia
The Hairy Rosewood, Dysoxylum rufum is a rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

 tree in the Mahogany
Meliaceae
The Meliaceae, or the Mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs in the order Sapindales....

 family, found in eastern Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It occurs on a variety of different soils and rainforest types. From as far south as Bulahdelah
Bulahdelah
Bulahdelah is a locality in the Hunter/Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia in the Great Lakes Council Local Government Area. The main population centre, where 69% of the area's population lives, is the town of Bulahdelah.-Geography:...

, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 to the McIlwraith Range
McIlwraith Range
The McIlwraith Range is a rugged, dissected granite plateau on the Cape York Peninsula, Far North Queensland, Australia. Part of the Great Dividing Range, it covers about 3000 km2 and lies about 15 km east of the town of Coen, and 550 km north of Cairns...

 in far north eastern Australia.

Other common names include Rusty Rosewood, Bastard Pencil Cedar, Red Heart, Rusty Mahogany, False Rosewood, Rusty Bean and Rusty Mahogany. The specific epithet rufum refers to the rusty red of the leaf, fruit and flower hairs of this species.

Description

Usually a small to medium sized tree. Though it reaches 40 metres tall with a stem diameter of 90 cm at Murray Scrub
Toonumbar National Park
Toonumbar is a national park in New South Wales, Australia, 617 km north of Sydney.The Park is part of the Focal Peak Group World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Australia inscribed in 1986 and added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2007.-Description:The park features...

.

Leaves

Leaflets are nearly opposite on the stem, without serrations. Asymmetrical at the leaf base. Leaflets 5 to 17 cm long long. Lanceolate to broad lanceolate in shape with a fine point at the leaf tip. Unusually, the leaflets are a dull green above the leaf, and a brighter green below. Hairy under the leaf. Leaflet stalks 2 to 3 mm long, but much longer for the terminal leaflet, where it is up to 25 mm long. The compound leaf contains around 19 leaflets. With a stalk 4 to 10 cm long.

Flowers, fruit & regeneration

Pleasantly scented white flowers form on panicle
Panicle
A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....

s from December to February. The panicles form from the leaf axils. And when mature, the flower scent becomes less pleasant. The flower calyx is hairy.

The fruit is a round yellowish capsule, around 2 cm in diameter. Mostly five valved. Also covered with hairs which can irritate the skin. Seeds inside the capsule are cream, irregular in shape, and about 5 mm in diameter. Fruit ripens from April to December. Regeneration from fresh seed is relatively swift and reliable. Taking as little as three weeks. After eight weeks, germination should be complete with good results.

Timber

Onion scented wood. Mostly white with a red heartwood core which resembles the related Red Bean
Dysoxylum mollissimum subsp. molle
The Red Bean or Miva Mahogany is a rainforest tree in the Mahogany family. Dysoxylum mollissimum subsp. molle occurs in tropical, sub-tropical and littoral rainforests in eastern Australia. Distributed from the Macleay River in New South Wales in the south, to Cooktown, tropical Queensland in the...

. Timber is vulnerable to attack from the lyctus
Lyctus brunneus
Lyctus brunneus is a species of beetle in the family Bostrichidae , with a worldwide distribution, being present in tropical Africa, Oceania, the Palearctic , the Nearctic, the Neotropics, North Africa and East Asia. It is absent from the Near East...

borer.
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