What wood is this ?

[KsWoodsMan]

I ended up with some firewood in the pile over the weekend, that I just cant find a name for it.

The bark/wood seems simular to a Red Oak. The leaf is darker then an Osage Orange ( hedge/bowdark ). The same size, shape, texture and character as the Osage Orange. It grows in clusters of 1-4 from the twig. It never bore any fruit, pod or nut but has a dark thorn ranging in length from 1-3 inches. I was told it was Black Locast before we took it down. If he hadnt said "take everything with a thorn from the fence row" we hould have missed it as the appearance of the tree was Post Oak or netted leaf hackberry.

It is a very decent firewood. It has a mild oaky smoke doesnt spark and coals nicely. As good a heat as any oak, locust or mullberry but not quite hedge

Anybody have any ideas on this one ? Kansas Doesnt have much of a Forestry Dept in this area to take it too for ID'ing.

 

[danlauer6]

How is the grain of the wood? Is it yellow neat the outside (close to bark) and a red/pink in the middle?

 

[Stihl-in-Ky]

The leaf and thorn make it sound like Honey locust.Do you have any pics.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

The wood is very light yellow, almost white inside to the core. With little change in the heartwood. But there is no pink in it. The bark has a reddish cast to it. Rings at the base (14 inches) indicate 60 years growth.
Locusts are fairly common here and all have a compound opposed pennant leaf. This one didnt. The bark didnt say Locust to me either. The wood is a fine straight grain resembling white oak. Not quite as finely textured or white as locust wood. Easy to split with an axe but the wood is extremely strong. I can get pictures of the wood in the stack but at the time it was more important to get it down and out before the horses ended up in the thorns. The leaf, once the tree was down, appeared to be from an Osage Orange. Exactly the same shape/size and characteristic, except darker. Hedge trees, too, are common in this area and across the fence there were several in a stand for comparison.

The best of the 3 was approx 35' tall with a straight round trunk to 15-16' but the limbs were twisted in every direction and somewhat small.

I'll see what can be done about pictures for a better ID of what is left of it.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

It seems as though it might be a buckthorn, according to http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/exotic/vegman/eight.htm
Though it didnt have the toothed leaf. The leaf was darker then expected still for this time of year. Like the hedge trees of this area the only ones remaining were in the upper reaches.

 

[wdchuck]

The two varieties of buckthorn around here have a reddish wood throughout, no discernible difference between sapwood and heartwood.

You described a wood that is nearly white in color...You may want to ask this in another forum on AS.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Hawthorn?


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[KsWoodsMan]

If Buckthorn is reddish wood then this probably isnt it.

I have my doubts about hawthorn. No red berries present for winter birds. And the leaf wasnt lobed.

After asking this on here my brother tells me he has couple of pretty good 20" X 16 ft logs very simular he is planning to mill. He was asking if I might know what it was too.

It does make a good firewood with a strong but not unpleasant odor.

 

[Driftwood]

Woolly Buckthorn? The book "Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines in Kansas" describes the trunk as " nearly black, shallow furrows, ridges blocky or often join diagonally with other ridges, Wood: yellow with a thin, light sapwood: hard heavy" The distro map shows it in mainly SE Kansas.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

I was thinking Hawthorn due to the size of the thorns you mentioned.



Ma Natures very own spears!


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[KsWoodsMan]

I'm going to go with Wooly Buckthorn. It does seem a close match according to the link provided and a few others after refining my google searches.

Thanks to all,

Aaron