Toona ciliata is the famed Red Cedar of Queensland timbers, and understandably so. It is a grand rainforest tree and one can easily envision avenues of Red Cedars in Cairns. What a touch of grandiosity this would have imbued the city with? It would also not be an exaggeration to say that the history of Cairns is has the Red Cedar as part of its foundational pillars.

Flowers of the Red cedar

The dehiscent capsules of Red Cedar resemble mahogany fruits which are from the same family.

Bark

In the rainforest this tree can quite easily be recognized by it’s somewhat flaky reddish-brown bark. The leaves are compound and as a vein pattern that is quite easy to recognize once known. Specifically, the Red Cedar resembles Ribbonwood (Euroschinus falcatus) quite closely, but the bark details differ and the leaves of Red Cedar does not have the mango-ish smell of Ribbonwood.