Australian Yellowwood quite a picture (frame)

The Tulip Satinwood, or Deep Yellowwood, has much sought after wood, whether it be of satin sheen or yellow. It's botanical name, Rhodosphaera rhodanthema, is all about the colour red: red spheres and red flowers. 

The small flowers are loosely clustered into what we call a panicle. The buds are red, as are the flowers, so I guess that's what the names are referencing, although the red spheres may be the dark brown fruits. 

The Deep Yellowwood (the common name we favour at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria) is in the Anarcardiaceae, which includes the more familiar Peppercorn Tree, in the genus Schinus, with its red peppercorn-like fruits. The family is named after another well known member, the cashew tree, a species of Anarardium, and also includes the mango, Mangifera.

Rhodosphaera rhodanthema, the only species in the genus Rhodosphaera, is from dry rainforest in the north-east of Australia: from Macleay River in northern New South Wales to Maryborough in Queensland.

It was originally classified in the genus Rhus, the Sumac, by Ferdinand Mueller, as were many species in the family Anarcardiaceae at the time. In 1880 it was moved to its own genus, an Australian endemic.  

The wood beneath this tessellated bark has been described as 'pleasing yellowish bronze with a silky lustre', so that's the yellow and satin in the common names. When cut, the sap is sticky and white, with an 'astringent taste' and a 'cane smell'. 

The cut timber is or has been 'highly prized' for cabinet work, and more specifically railway carriage fittings, turnery (on a lathe) and picture frames. It's apparently also good for making musical instruments (although I don't know what kind).

As to the Tulip part of the common name, the only vague connection here might be its lobed juvenile leaves, which are a little like an oak or perhaps a Tulip Tree, Liriodendron. As you can see in my pictures, the leaflets on the mature tree are hardly lobed. 

The new leaves on an older tree may not be curiously lobed, but they are often pink or red in colour. In Lamington National Park, near the NSW-Queensland border, this colourful new growth appears in autumn. I seem to recall seeing it about the same time in Melbourne Gardens but will have to wait a few months to check.

In September, when I took these pictures, the flowers were attention-grabbing red. All that red, rather than the yellow of the wood, and its hardiness make it a popular and good street tree up north.