The Tree
The trees are straight and clean almost to their full height which reaches a maximum of 36.0m on the best sites, but may be shorter. The diameter is about 1.0m.

The Timber
The timber is pale brown, with a central core of darker brown coloured wood; it may be streaked with red, but this is sometimes absent. The grain is mostly straight, and the texture close and uniform, with very inconspicuous growth rings. It contains little resin, and varies from light and soft, to moderately hard and heavy, but averages about 550 kg/m3 in weight when dried.

Drying
In general it is more difficult to dry from the green state than most softwoods. It is variable in its drying properties and dark-coloured material dries slowly with a pronounced tendency to split and distort. Inherent stresses in the timber are liable to cause distortion when the timber is machined. Most of the drying problems occur however in the initial drying from the green and imported stock does not pose too many problems when this is kiln dried. Care must be taken however, and the inherent stresses must not be ignored: stress checks, and suitable conditioning at the end of a kiln run should ensure uniformly dried material.

Strength
The timber is similar to European redwood in general strength properties, but it lacks toughness, which restricts its use for certain purposes.

Working Qualities
Good - Easy to work, and planes and moulds to a clean, smooth finish. Stains, polishes, paints and glues well.