Bats-wing Coral Tree


Bats-wing Coral Tree (Erythina vespertilio) Also known as: Grey Corkwood	Trees &Turnings Gallery - CH timbers Gallery - Other stuff Gallery - Flat stuff Gallery - Carvings The eggs Gadgets Projects Feedback Home
Found right across Northern Australia in semi-arid regions through to rainforest, Bat-wing Coral tree grows to about 10 metres tall but has been recorded to 30 metres in rainforest. The trunks of trees growing around the Central Highlands reach about 500mm diameter.

Bat-wing Coral tree gets its name from the unique shape of the leaves and the timber has been used by the aborigines for thousands of years for making Coolamons and Woomeras because it is so easy to carve and so light to carry and could be used to start fires with friction. The tree was also used medicinally, the bark apparently used as a sedative.

This is the biggest Batwing Coral tree I have come across to date - about 600mm diameter growing on Peak Range.

The bark is normally grey in colour but the specimen pictured to the right has had a red tinge to it for many years now though I have no idea why.

One of our few deciduous trees, it has usually dropped all of it's leaves by the end of the dry season at which time it produces the unusual red flowers pictured here.

Note the pods beginning to form just above the flowers in this picture - they eventually end up about 70mm long with 2 to 6 bright orange/red beans which are so attractive I have even collected them on request for an alternative jewellery maker.

The grey, cork-like bark has tough thorns spread mainly along the upper branches.

At just 190kg/m3, this amazing tree is listed by the Forestry Department as Australia's equivalent to Balsa wood. A welcome difference is the readily visible medulary ray in the Batwing Coral tree timber (right).

After many years of ignoring this timber as a candidate for turning, I finally grabbed a chunk and had a go at roughing it down to see what it was like. Its high moisture content and very open grain structure ensured a premature shower for me and its 'furriness' made it a difficult job for such a soft timber. After drying for a few months the timber was a little bit better to machine but the 'furry' areas would still not cooperate so the '80grit' gouge got a good workout!

While it may not machine well, it sands very easily and soaks up huge amounts of finish before you build up a sheen. Even though this bowl is 230mm x 80mm and 15mm thick, it weighs in at just 330g - and I reckon 80g of that is the oil it soaked up!!!
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Bats-wing Coral Tree

(Erythina vespertilio)

Also known as: Grey Corkwood

Found right across Northern Australia in semi-arid regions through to rainforest, Bat-wing Coral tree grows to about 10 metres tall but has been recorded to 30 metres in rainforest. The trunks of trees growing around the Central Highlands reach about 500mm diameter.

This is the biggest Batwing Coral tree I have come across to date - about 600mm diameter growing on Peak Range.

The bark is normally grey in colour but the specimen pictured to the right has had a red tinge to it for many years now though I have no idea why.

One of our few deciduous trees, it has usually dropped all of it's leaves by the end of the dry season at which time it produces the unusual red flowers pictured here.

Note the pods beginning to form just above the flowers in this picture - they eventually end up about 70mm long with 2 to 6 bright orange/red beans which are so attractive I have even collected them on request for an alternative jewellery maker.

The grey, cork-like bark has tough thorns spread mainly along the upper branches.

At just 190kg/m3, this amazing tree is listed by the Forestry Department as Australia's equivalent to Balsa wood. A welcome difference is the readily visible medulary ray in the Batwing Coral tree timber (right).

After drying for a few months the timber was a little bit better to machine but the 'furry' areas would still not cooperate so the '80grit' gouge got a good workout!

While it may not machine well, it sands very easily and soaks up huge amounts of finish before you build up a sheen. Even though this bowl is 230mm x 80mm and 15mm thick, it weighs in at just 330g - and I reckon 80g of that is the oil it soaked up!!!

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