Lagarostrobos franklinii (Hook.f.) Quinn

Horticultural & Botanical History

Introduced to Britain in 1844.  [JD].  ‘The Huon Pine, so-called from the Huon River, where first found, and also named after Sir John Franklin, is a pine which grows to a great size in the river-bottoms of the West Coast, with a diameter of eight or ten feet, but the ordinary size of the tree will give a plank of from fourteen to thirty inches in width and up to twenty feet in length.  The wood is straight-grained, and heavy for a pine, of a bright yellow straw-colour, and very full of an essential oil, which causes it to be almost rot-proof.  When made into furniture, the essential oil slowly oxidises, and the wood turns to a smoky-brown colour with age.  It is a splendid joiner’s wood, and is especially useful for boat-planking, as the teredo objects to the essential oil.

The supply is little more than sufficient for the local demand, but it is a timber that is well worth systematic cultivation.  Most of the finest timber grows below flood-level, and it is an exception to the rule that durable timber does not grow in swampy ground, Huon Pine being one of the most durable timbers known.  It is not a tough wood, having rather a short fracture, but it steams and bends well.  Some trees will cut very handsome figured panels.  It has a strong and, to some people, rather a sickly odour.  The logs are cut in almost inaccessible gullies, and floated down the streams to the seaport, where they are shipped, generally, to Hobart.  [Papers & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania p.52/1902].

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [C.35/1850] and probably obtained from one of Macarthur’s customers in Tasmania.  Two plants were sent to John Lindley in 1848 [MP A2933-1, p.157] and a further two plants to Sir William Hooker at Kew [MP A2933-1, p.165]. 

Notes