Tree species idenfication

[pencheff]

Yesterday I picked up a couple of nice chunks of wood from trees that had been taken down a few weeks ago. Both chunks were over 20" in diameter. The first had no leaves to help with identification but the heartwood is grayish, sapwood is very white and the grain is tight and straight. The second had a couple little leaves sprouting from the trunk, the wood has a yellowish hue and the end grain that has been exposed to light for weeks is decidedly brown.

Any idea what I have here?

 

[michael h]

what is it?

Greg,
it looks like elm or maybe mulberry to me. I can almost see a mulberry on the leaf in the photo.
good luck,
M

 

[Rob Wallace]

Yesterday I picked up a couple of nice chunks of wood from trees that had been taken down a few weeks ago. Both chunks were over 20" in diameter. The first had no leaves to help with identification but the heartwood is grayish, sapwood is very white and the grain is tight and straight. The second had a couple little leaves sprouting from the trunk, the wood has a yellowish hue and the end grain that has been exposed to light for weeks is decidedly brown.

Any idea what I have here?

My first impression is elm - mulberry is typically more yellowish when freshly cut and eventually turns brownish with age (although both are ring-porous) as you describe. The color difference between sapwood and heartwood is also quite telling, pushing a bit harder for elm. As I recall, mulberry does not have as marked a distinction between these. I recently sold an elm hollow vessel, and the sapwood on top made for a nice transition to the chocolate brown heartwood below. I have more of this wood and will be turning it in another week or three....

The leaves are obviously not the best specimens (!), but certainly could be elm leaves. Mulberry leaves are usually somewhat asymmetric with much deeper sinuses between lobes. The margins on the leaves also appear serrate like elm leaves.

Without an actual wood sample, or a very close-up of end grain, I think I'd settle for elm as the "long-distance" ID on this one.

Rob Wallace

 

[Mark Mandell]

Upper piece looks too straight grained for elm which has highly interlocked fibers. How's it smell? Elm, like cottonwood, fixes a lot of nitrogen in the form of urea.

The lower piece [with leaves] is in the Mulberry family, but not bright enough for Osage Orange, so I concure with a Mulberry diagnosis.

 

[ahoiberg]

i'd have to agree with the mulberry ID. the leaf just doesn't lead me to elm... although rob provides a good argument for it.

leaf diagnosis on mulberry is tough since they've got like 3 different leaves that can be on any one tree.

mulberry would be my guess though. have you got another picture of more bark?

 

[Rob Wallace]

Mixed sample....??

Yesterday I picked up a couple of nice chunks of wood from trees that had been taken down a few weeks ago.

Are we sure these are from only ONE tree?? All samples from the same tree? Perhaps there is a possibility of having more than one species here...??? Were these from a log pile or other place where many different logs are placed?

I can agree in part with some mulberry characteristics for some of the photos.... but they don't fit for all photos that have been provided....

Rob

 

[dkulze]

Mulberry on the bottom one. The darkened end grain that's been exposed to the sun is a givaway. and that golden color, leaf, and grain pattern match perfectly.

Top one, not so sure but would guess it's in the nut family. Possibly butternut. Distinct heartwood/sapwood difference suggests this, as my experience with elm is a more graduated color change.

Dietrich

 

[Captain Eddie]

Wood looks like mulberry, leaf is almost identical, see this leaf www.uark.edu/ua/eeam/mulberry-leaf-opt.jpg

 

[pencheff]

Are we sure these are from only ONE tree??

No, sorry to mislead you, the samples are from two distinctly different trees. The top photo is the sample from one tree the second and third shots are from another.

The 2nd & 3rd shots don't really show the color of the wood when freshly cut. As I was rendering it on the bandsaw yesterday some of it almost looked dayglo yellow/green immediately after being cut.

My wife thought the leaves on the second sample looked like mulberry but we had no idea that mulberry could get that large. 20" diameter trunk? I thought mulberry was a skinny little tree like the ugly scraggly one in my front yard that the wife refuses to allow me to cut down.

 

[Doc Ron]

My wife thought the leaves on the second sample looked like mulberry but we had no idea that mulberry could get that large. 20" diameter trunk? I thought mulberry was a skinny little tree like the ugly scraggly one in my front yard that the wife refuses to allow me to cut down.

The mulberry tree in the backyard when I was a child was at least 20' tall and a couple of feet in diameter. Great tasting berries, but Mom did not appreciate the combination mulberries/birds/clean wash on the line

 

[Jake Debski]

Great tasting berries, but Mom did not appreciate the combination mulberries/birds/clean wash on the line...........

Ya 'oughta try gitten to Gram's out-house in late summer, barefooted of course, had to pass under that bird and berry droppi'n tree.

 

[Steve Worcester]

I am going with Elm and Catalpa

 

[Gretch Flo]

white mulberry

[As I was rendering it on the bandsaw yesterday some of it almost looked dayglo yellow/green immediately after being cut.

My wife thought the leaves on the second sample looked like mulberry but we had no idea that mulberry could get that large. 20" diameter trunk? I thought mulberry was a skinny little tree like the ugly scraggly one in my front yard that the wife refuses to allow me to cut down. [/QUOTE]


I have white mulberry on my property line and some in the neighbors. One tree is huge that I have (outspread arms would only circle less than half circumferance-but my arms are short!!!). The smaller trees I have turned, I don't particularly like it. The wood fresh cut, and turned is boiled egg yolk color. Left in the air it turns orange. The sap wood is white. While turning thru the sapwood my throat gets scratchy, necessitating coughs. Just an observation. No real problem. Don't appreciate the berries on the white mulberry but leaves are varied in shape, and have "diseased" bubbles on them. My neighbor has a red mulberry tree. Lots of berries. Made freezer jam for my kids from them and was very good. No berries last year, but good crop coming for this 4th of July harvest. Not sure what that wood looks like. Maybe it'll die, so I can see Gretch

 

[Don O. Jr.]

Catalpa

I agree with Steve W. on the secon pic being Catalpa. Iv'e turned a bunch of it that looks just like the photo. Not sure on the first pic, maybe a soft maple ?

 

[Bill Boehme]

Yesterday I picked up a couple of nice chunks of wood from trees that had been taken down a few weeks ago. Both chunks were over 20" in diameter. The first had no leaves to help with identification but the heartwood is grayish, sapwood is very white and the grain is tight and straight. The second had a couple little leaves sprouting from the trunk, the wood has a yellowish hue and the end grain that has been exposed to light for weeks is decidedly brown.

Any idea what I have here?

How about a picture of a clean slice of end grain. The picture that you show is too dark, rough, and dirty to tell much about it.