

Red Ash. 



(Alphitona excelsa, Reiss.) 



This is a little known timber, and rarely found on the market, but it is, 

 nevertheless, one of our finest native cabinet woods. It is close-grained, hard, fairly heavy, 

 but with practically no figure its special recommendation for this particular work being the 

 bright red colour of the duramen. When first planed only a tinge of red is seen, but on 

 exposure the colour deepens to a bright cardinal. It could be used for panelling, decorative 

 tables, carving, and turning. 



Description of the Tree. A tall tree, found near water or ridges overlooking 

 water, open country or brush forests, the young branches with a rusty tomentum. Bark 

 hard, compact, often with a whitish coating. Leaves characteristic, alternate, ovate to 

 lanceolate, large, entire, subcoriaceous, glabrous above, white or hoary underneath with 

 a close tomentum, veins prominent. Flowers in small umbel-like cymes arranged in 

 dichotomous cymes in the upper axils or in a terminal corymbose panicle. Fruit 

 globular or broadly ovoid, separating into two or three hard carpels. Seeds shining, 

 enclosed in a red-brown arillus. 



Geographical Range. Curtis Island, Queensland, to Mount Dromedary, New 

 South Wales. 





