By Geoff Holloway
Black Bean (Castanospermum australe) grows to 40m high and over a metre in diameter, dense crown with large green glossy foliage and large bean like fruit.
The heartwood ranges from dark brown to chocolate shades, deepening to almost black; sometimes streaked with lighter bands. Sapwood is white to yellow. Grain porous and coarse with a density of 755kg/m3
The wood has been used, in the past, as sawn and round timber in bridge construction and as mining timbers, for general house framing, and common use for flooring, lining, mouldings and joinery: rarely now used for these purposes. Now used as a general craft wood, easily turned and machined but has some annoying toxic effects.
