huon pine

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HUON PINE

Lagarostrobos franklinii
Lagarostrobos franklinii of the family Podocarpaceae, native to Tasmania (Australia), this is NOT a pine. Like MANY Australian woods, it was given the name of a familiar tree by English settlers without regard to botanical niceties such as whether or not they were actually related in any way to the woods for which they were named.

NOTE ABOUT "BIRD'S EYE" and "BURL" HUON PINE: Some huon pine is sold as "bird's eye" due to a plethora of what appear to be small bark inclusions from branches, much as one sees in some true pines. What these actually are, I do not know but they are most certainly NOT anything like (in either appearance or character) the bird's eye found in maples in North America. Some of the wood with that exact same figure is sold as "burl", but it is does not appear to be a burl, although I'm not positive about that and when it is REALLY heavy (which doesn't seem to be very often at all) it is quite similar to "mappa burl" from tulip poplar).

LATER NOTE: my friend David Clark from Australia tells me that bird's eye figure DOES occur in huon pine and is going to try to get me a sample. He also tells me that it is illegal to log this species in Tasmania. Any wood on the market can only come from recovered logs from waterways and that from licensed salvors.

a note about huon pine vs rimu

Huon pine is primarily native to Tasmania and rimu is primarily native to New Zealand but also grows in Australia, New Caledonia, Malaysia and Borneo. The folks down there probably don't get them confused at all, I just thought I'd point out some possible confusion in the USA.

Part of the confusion probably stems from the fact that huon pine, Lagarostrobos franklinii, used to be designated as Dacrydium franklinii, whereas rimu is the common name for a couple of closely related species, Dacrydium cupressinum and Dacrydium nidulum. Also, the rimu species have huon pine as one of their common names, although they probably really shouldn't. I am not familiar with the two woods up close and personal, but it appears that they should be fairly easy to distinguish from each other.

The name-sets, as best as I can distinguish them, are as follows (the family is Podocarpaceae):

Dacrydium cupressinum = rimu, new zealand red pine, sempilor, rimu dacrydium, huon pine, sempilor, yaka
Dacrydium nidulum = rimu, melor, huon pine, fijan dacrydium, sempilor, yaka, ekor kuda, ru bukit, dakua salusalu, hoang dan and a few others
Lagarostrobos franklinii (syn. Dacrydium franklinii) = huon pine, tasmainian pine, huon, huon dacrydium, macquerie pine

my samples:
NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K)
colors will vary under other lighting conditions

None yet

web pics:

planks

through and through cut and stickered bole

although this particular piece was not listed as "bird's eye" or "burl" this is EXACTLY the figure that is normally listed as one of those terms [see note at top of page about about bird's eye / burl]