Endiandra sieberi, known as the Corkwood is a rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

 tree growing in eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

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Habitat

A common tree on lowland and some mountain rainforests. Very common on sand in littoral

Littoral

The littoral zone is that part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged. It always includes this intertidal zone and is often used to...

 rainforests. The corky bark assists in protection from fire. It grows from Kioloa (35° S) near Batemans Bay in southern New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 to the islands of Moreton Bay

Moreton Bay

Moreton Bay is a bay on the eastern coast of Australia 45 km from Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources...

 (27° S), in south eastern Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. Common names include Corkwood

Corkwood

Corkwood is a common name of a number of plants:*Annona glabra in the West Indies*Duboisia species in Australia*Endiandra sieberi a Corkwood from Australia in the laurel family...

, Hard Corkwood, Corkwood Laurel and Pink Corkwood.

Description

Endiandra sieberi is a medium sized tree to 30 metres tall and 90 cm in trunk diameter.

Bark, trunk & leaves

The bark is a fawnish grey, relatively soft and corky. Large trees sometimes shortly flanged but not buttressed at the base. The trunk is straight and cylindrical.

Leaves are alternate, simple and entire. 5 to 8 cm long, drawn out to a blunt point. Mid green on the leaf top, but paler green beneath. Leaf stalks 5 to 10 mm.

Midrib raised slightly on the upper surface but flattened beneath. Net veins clearly seen as in Cryptocarya microneura

Cryptocarya microneura

Cryptocarya microneura is a rainforest tree growing at the eastern coastal parts of Australia.- Habitat :Common in most warm temperate rainforest areas on the poorer sedimentary soils, but also in the littoral rainforests...

. Mid rib colour is creamy yellow.

Flowers, fruit & germination

Flowers appear from June to October, being cream or yellow in panicle

Panicle

A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....

s.

The fruit is an egg shaped drupe

Drupe

In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...

. Black and shiny, 2 to 3.5 cm long. The single seed is ovate and pointed 25 to 30 mm long. Fruit eaten by rainforest birds including the White-headed pigeon

White-headed Pigeon

The White-headed Pigeon is a pigeon native to the east coast of Australia, belonging to the same genus as the domestic pigeon C. livia....

 and Topknot Pigeon

Topknot Pigeon

The Topknot Pigeon is a pigeon native to Australia. It is also known by the name of "Flock Pigeon".-Description:...

. Fruit ripe from March to October.

Like most Australian laurel

Lauraceae

The Lauraceae or Laurel family comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. The family contains about 55 genera and over 3500, perhaps as many as 4000, species world-wide, mostly from warm or tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America...

 fruit, removal of the fleshy aril

Aril

An aril is any specialized outgrowth from the funiculus that covers or is attached to the seed. It is sometimes applied to any appendage or thickening of the seed coat in flowering plants, such as the edible parts of the mangosteen and pomegranate fruit, the mace of the nutmeg seed, or the...

 is advised to assist seed germination. Roots and shoots usually appear within three to twelve months, with a germination rate of around 20 percent.

Timber & Uses

Timber is light coloured, hard and close grained. In colonial times, the bark proved an unsuccessful cork substitute, compared with cork from the Cork Oak

Cork Oak

Quercus suber, commonly called the Cork Oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa.It grows to up to 20 m,...

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