This is a poplar bowl from one of the trees at Monticello. The tree was amazingly tight grained for poplar, due to its age. The edge is NOT burned, but rather blackened from over a century of the tree being hollow. Also worth mention is that relative to the tree's immense size, it had almost no sapwood. The tree was almost completely dark green heartwood; alas only about a foot of the thickness of the 7.5 foot diameter tree remained when it was removed.