Australian Bimble box is found in the central and coastal regions of Australia.  The tree grows up to 20 m tall with a typical ‘box-type’ bark. The Bimble Box Burls is extensively found in open-forest communities like arid or semi-arid regions. The color variation depends on soil type and water availability. The burl has stunning applications because of its exciting color range.

This burl is a unique Eucalyptus species with a honey goldish color. The burl has a uniform texture with coarse grain pattern often interlocked with tight gum veins. The wood is very hard and difficult to work with hand tools. It glues and finishes well. The wood has great application in making musical instruments and other construction works.

Exotic Wood Zone offers wide varieties of Bimble Box Burls

The binomial name of Bimble Box is E. Populnea (The expansion of E is Eucalyptus). Another common name of this Australian endemic tree is Popular Box. It grows abundantly in various regions such as Rockhampton, central South Wales, and coastal and central Queensland. The tree reaches up to 25 meters. Popular Box is extensively grown in open forest communities of arid and semi-arid regions. It gets the name Bimble Box because of the shape of the leaves. Rounded, glossy dark green leaves make this species unique appearance.

Bimble Box has larger branches and its bark is persistent on its trunk. Grey with whitish patches and fibrous-flaky (box) are the other peculiarities of this wood. The flowering period of this tree is during February –March.

Botanist, Ferdinand von Mueller described this species at the first time in 1858. Latin adjective of this tree is populnea. The other common names of bimble box are shiny leaf box, nankeen gum, white box, red box, bimbil box, rounded leaf box, and bimbil. In 1990, Kenneth Hill and Lawrie Johnson described and named it as the subspecies E. populnea and the subspecies is bimbil.

Hybrids varieties of this species are recorded from Queensland. The hybrids varieties such as E. populnea and E. coolibah are recorded within New South Wales. The species is abundantly grown on the New South Wales western plains, north from Narrandera and Pooncarie.

The most suitable habitat for Popular Box is red soils, sandy loam texture and clay loam. Thus, they are found in areas that are sandier and reliably watered. The same soil condition and climate is suitable for gum coolibah, white cypress pine, and grey box. Therefore, bimble box grows in the same areas. It is not so common on sandplains with deep loamy soils. Though not common, it is grown with Ironwood (Acacia excels) and mulga (Acacia Aneura).

Good quality honey is produced by the flowers of Bimble box trees. Though the supply is very limited, it is very dense and has pale amber color. The timber of bimble box is very hard and durable. It is extremely useful for construction work and fence posts. But, working with bimble box timber is not so easy. It is susceptible to the attack of white ants.

The family of Bimble Box is Myrtaceae and its Genus is Eucalyptus. It has a wavy figure grain and the texture is fine. The timber is not resistant to termite. The life expectancy of this tree is over 25 years. Apart from engineering and construction, the wood is used for making musical instruments. Generally speaking, the growth rings are absent in this timber, but it is visible in some specimens.

Please Note:  Due to the nature of burls, this wood may have checks or small cracks that may be visible or may not be visible.  This is the nature of this type of wood and some checking should be expected.