Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Toona ciliata
Common name
Red cedar, Santhana vembu
Family
Meliaceae
Where found
Forest and stream banks. Coast, ranges, and the eastern edge of the tablelands, mainly north of Batemans Bay. Occasional sightings elsewhere.
Notes
Deciduous tree to 45 m tall. Larger trees with buttresses or flanges. Bark brown to grey and scaly, flaking irregularly. Young stems hairy, becoming hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, usually 15-50 cm long, compound, with mostly 8-20 leaflets, each 4-15 cm long, 15-55 mm wide, tips pointed, margins entire (more or less toothed in saplings), mostly hairless. Domatia small hairy tufts along the midvein on the lower surface (handlens/macro app on your mobile phone needed). Male and female flowers on the same plant; flowers rarely bisexual. Flowers creamy white, with 5 petals fused at the base, each 3.5-6 mm long. Flowers in many-flowered branched clusters 20-50 cm long. Flowers Sept.–Nov. Ripe seed cases dry, brownish, oval, 10–20 mm long.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Toona~ciliata (accessed 9 February, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
