river redgum

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REDGUM, RIVER

Eucalyptus camaldulensis and others
Primarily Eucalyptus camaldulensis but may also include Eucalyptus rostrata and Eucalyptus calophylla, all of the family Myrtaceae and all native to Australia. Eucalyptus robusta also grows in Florida and seems to always be called red gum eucalyptus in the U.S.A. Eucalyptus camaldulensis also grows in California and is often listed as California red gum.

NOTE: although river redgum is the technically correct name for this wood, it is MUCH more common to call it river red gum (with a space), and in the U.S.A. it is more often called red gum eucalyptus

This is an Australian wood, a member of the Eucalyptus family, and is not to be confused with "red gum" which is the heartwood of an American tree that is not related to river redgum. Also, this is sometimes incorrectly called "red river" gum, which is linguistically a completely different phrase. That is, "red river gum" would imply either (1) a gum species that grows next to the Red River, and to the best of my knowledge there is no such wood, or (2) a type of "river gum" specially know as the red type, which is not what this is. "River redgum" is a type of redgum that grows next to rivers.

I've seen a fair amount of variation in this wood and given the vast array of eucalyptus species, I find it a bit surprising that there are only three species listed for this common name. Quite unusual for Australian woods, which often have many Eucalyptus species associated with any given common name. I have no great confidence that wood sold in the USA can necessarily alway be tied to one of the three species I have listed, but it is at least likely.

David Clark tells me that Australian vendors sell LOTS of species as "river redgum", so the three species that I mention are likely NOT the only ones you'll see advertised with the common name river redgum

as benefits a major natural resource of a country, river redgum has its own stamp in Australia

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

both sides of a piece of curly river redgum / Eucalyptus camaldulensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. Note that the first face was sanded to 240 grit and the second face was not and this accounts for minor differences in color between the two (the second face still has a patina) and the better resolution of the detail characteristics as seen in the first one.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of redgum, river / Eucalyptus camaldulensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a long plank that I cut in half and then sanded on one half, and then a closeup. It has a light patina on the upper piece, which I left alone, and is freshly sanded on the lower piece.

both sides of a small plank cut from the larger one directly above and sanded down on the raw side. The first pic shows the side with the patina.

side grain of the piece directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR
flooring sample that has been finished with a hard, shiny finishing agent that has enriched, but not deepened, the color. This piece was sanded down and is shown raw directly below

flooring sample and end grain (the piece directly above, but sanded)

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATEof the piece directly above. The slightly purplish tint to the end grain closeup is correct and the deepening of it to a more reddish color in the update is also correct.

flooring sample and end grain (the piece directly above, but sanded)

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

flooring sample and end grain (the piece directly above, but sanded)

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

flooring sample and end grain (the piece directly above, but sanded)

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

flooring sample and end grain (the piece directly above, but sanded)

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

flooring sample and end grain ---the curl on this piece is even more pronounced on the wood that it is in the pic, and it was even MORE pronounced when the wood had the finishing agent, as shown directly above.

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR
face grain and end grain of a finished flooring sample contributed to the site by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions. David did not provide a species name with this and he tells me that Australian vendors sell LOTS of different species as "river redgum", so the fact that this one looks more reddish than my other samples just indicates that it's likely a different species than them. I also note that the end grain closeup on this piece looks more like what I have on this site as karri than it does the other river redgum samples above.

flooring sample and end grain (the piece directly above, but sanded)

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

both sides and the end grain of a small piece sent to me for identification. It was on the mystery woods page for a long time until it was identified by Jill Christie of Australia as river redgum. This ID is not 100% since so many eucalypts are so close to each other, I'm confident enough of it to have moved it off of the mystery wood page to here.

HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP of the piece directly above

The Wood Book pics

flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
red gum (Eucalyptus rostrata) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views

web pics:

stump end listed as red gum eucalyptus

slab (it's big --- that's a guy's arm on the right)

sections of slabs, all from the same vendor and listed as Australian gum / Eucalyptus camaldulensis

planks listed as river redgum / Eucalyptus camaldulensis

Murray river redgum

planks listed as river redgum / Eucalyptus camaldulensis --- the one on the right was not listed as figured or curly, but obviously it is.

curly river redgum --- I SERISOUSLY doubt the correctness of the color on those last two

planks with wet and dry sections, listed as California red gum / Eucalyptus camaldulensis

planks that have been moistened for the pics and were listed as California red gum / Eucalyptus camaldulensis

small sections of slabs partially moistened for the pics, all listed as Australian gum / Eucalyptus camaldulensis

plank listed as California red gum / Eucalyptus camaldulensis

three slabs and a closeup, all listed as red gum eucalpytus and contributed by a Florida sawyer who goes by "Funktionhouse" and whom I thank. These were all harvested in Florida

planks, all from the same vendor, listed as California red gum / Eucalyptus camaldulensis

pen blanks liste as river red gum

crotch listed as California red gum / Eucalyptus camaldulensis

misc planks, generally listed as (Australian) river red gum

planks listed as eucalyptus / Eucalyptus robusta

glulam (that looks to me more like flooring than glulam) listed as river red gum / Eucalyptus rostrata

mottled planks

plank listed as highly figured red gum eucalyptus

figured plank --- both sides and a closeup

planks listed as beeswing Murray red river gum

various pieces listed as red gum eucalyptus

knife handle scales --- color and grain are both weird, so this may have been mis-labeled (river red gum is a Eucalyptus species and this is probably some OTHER Eucaluptus species since the figure does look like eucalyptus)