Blue Quandong

By Geoff Holloway    

Blue Quandong (Elaeocarpus grandis) Common names – Blue Fig, Blueberry Ash, White Quandong and the trade name of Silver Quandong.

A large tree to 35 metres with a large canopy, growing in rainforests from Northern NSW to North Queensland and as the photo shows, grown as a shade tree in the grounds of a retirement village in Ipswich.

The trunk is buttressed with a light grey bark, leaves are glossy dark green with old leaves turning a bright red, greenish-white flowers and blue fruit.

The wood is creamy-white, very light at 500kg/m3 with quite deep sapwood, easily worked with a satisfactory finish if you exclude the sapwood.

Although susceptible to lyctid, termites and blue stain the wood has been used for furniture, boat building, interior applications and because of its tone quality, musical instruments.