Need help on type of tree/firewood this is.

[Corey]

Dylan - The leaf litter is firemarshals original photo. My split is the second photo. Sorry if the descriptions got confusing.

Firemarshal - Yes, hedge can get quite big. Most of the wood I am burning this year came from three limbs of one tree. The limbs were about 16-18" big at the base. The trunk was probably 30-36" or more.

If it is hedge, you are in for a treat. It's the highest BTU/lb wood that I know of...low to mid 30 million per cord, very heavy, and burns great. Although one caution, it will most likely spark A LOT! Not all the time, but every now and then it will just erupt in a shower of sparks. You may have noticed green "hedge balls" on the ground or thorns on some of the branches, but only if it was a female tree.

Corey

 

[firemarshallbill]

It looks like I landed a winner then. Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[ChrisN]

I hate to throw a damper on things, but why did you discard the original Ash suggestion? the leaf looks like ash, the bark looks like ash, it splits like ash.... and ash is very common in New England. My motto is: if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quakes likes a duck... it's probably a duck!

Chris

 

[firemarshallbill]

Hey Chris - is ash yellow like that when you initially cut it?

 

[hh3f]

Try these links to help ID the tree.

http://www.arborday.org/trees/WhatTree.cfm?ItemID=E6A

(broken link removed)

 

[PaulGuy]

babalu, westport. grew up in new bedford. Almost bought a house in Middleboro.
Did you get your stove/fireplace at Woodstoves and Fireplaces Unlimited in your town? They seem like good people.

Your right, if it can be burnt, burn it!

Westport? Hmmm... Id say that's a very rare species which is actually dangerous to burn. Better send me you're address and I'll drive down there and take it off your hands for you. You know...a public service. ;-)

 

[firemarshallbill]

Try these links to help ID the tree.

http://www.arborday.org/trees/WhatTree.cfm?ItemID=E6A

(broken link removed)

Thanks Split this! Good info here.

babalu, westport. grew up in new bedford. Almost bought a house in Middleboro.
Did you get your stove/fireplace at Woodstoves and Fireplaces Unlimited in your town? They seem like good people.

Your right, if it can be burnt, burn it!

Westport? Hmmm... Id say that's a very rare species which is actually dangerous to burn. Better send me you're address and I'll drive down there and take it off your hands for you. You know...a public service. ;-)

Nah, you wouldn't like it here. Its very dangerous. Are you familiar with the area?

 

[ChrisN]

Bill, I just cut up an Ash Tree trunk. It it was pretty yellow when split, getting yellower toward the middle. It splits very easily. If I get a chance I'll post a picture of a split for comparison, if the thread drags on long enough!

 

[FireJumper]

Boxelder??? Interesting....I'm familiar with the tree....leaves, branching pattern, etc.....but not the wood...so, it could be. Otherwise, I'm thinking bigtooth aspen, or Lombardy poplar, which will always be a softwoods to me.

i need to agree...i would say aspen or poplar.

 

[TheFlame]

If you don't want it, I'll be happy to take it off your hands.

I'm 99.44% sure that's Mulberry. Its in the same family as osage orange. Whatever it is, I burn a lot of it. The wood is mustard yellow. It foams a lot when you first cut it and the ends turn a dark brown as it dries.

The wood is HEAVY and burns very well once dry. It burns hot and slow. It easily stays as glowing coals through the night. Its often tough to split because there are internal remains of branches going every direction and the tree has bends all over the place.

The only downside is that it throws sparks like crazy if it is the slightest bit green or damp. It makes excellent firewood for a stove. Be careful burning it in an open fireplace because of the sparks.

I'll second this. Looks like Mulberry to me.

 

[dflone]

It's not ash, cherry, larch or pine for sure. I cut all those species for a living here in the adirondacks and it looks like none of them. The bark looks alot like a hardwood but the wide growth rings would make it a fast growing and more than likely "soft" hardwood. Low btu output. Though free btu's are free btu's.

 

[Corey]

Well, because I said I would...here is a pic of my hedge (in the red box) versus your log. Sorry I didn't post last night, wife had the camera and wasn't home 'till late. Our logs are different sizes so there is some difference of scale. See what 'ya think.

Also, a good point was brought up about mulberry and hedge being in the same family and having similar wood color. I believe I was trumped in my 99% certainty by a 99.44% at somepoint in the thread. If I'm mistaken, that is fine...fully to able to admit that! I've been mistaken before...at least I can still claim that I've never been wrong!

So when are 'ya going to send that thing out for DNA testing?!?

Corey

 

[firemarshallbill]

Thanks all. It does look similar to your splitI cozy heat. I have been splitting the pieces for the last couple days. They split relatively easy. My brute force! at this point, i just want to get it done. its alot of work, but better than paying a huge gas bill.

 

[crow]

Does the wood have a strong smell?
I live across the street from woods that are filled with osage orange.
Occasionally the seedlings pop up in my yard. When you cut them they have a very distinctive sharp smell.
Not quite citrus , but similar.
When the tree is fresh cut , the sap is heavy and sticky.

My dad uses osage orange to make drum beaters (he sings on an inter-tribal american indian drum circle.)The drummers love osage , because once it's dry, and sealed ,you can pound on it with all your might , and it won't break.

I've always heard it was good for burning. Extremely hot. But I have never burned it.

A few people have told me that it can burn TOO hot. "nitro". Has anyone burned it regularly .
What's the story?

 

[damien]

I've got to agree w/cozy heat. I think that wood is hedge, got some in the stove right now. Love hedge, in moderation mixed with oak.

 

[Corey]

Does the wood have a strong smell?
I live across the street from woods that are filled with osage orange.
Occasionally the seedlings pop up in my yard. When you cut them they have a very distinctive sharp smell.
Not quite citrus , but similar.
When the tree is fresh cut , the sap is heavy and sticky.

My dad uses osage orange to make drum beaters (he sings on an inter-tribal american indian drum circle.)The drummers love osage , because once it's dry, and sealed ,you can pound on it with all your might , and it won't break.

I've always heard it was good for burning. Extremely hot. But I have never burned it.

A few people have told me that it can burn TOO hot. "nitro". Has anyone burned it regularly .
What's the story?

I've been burning straight hedge most of the winter. I have never noticed a strong smell in the green wood, of course, I 've never really put my nose right down to it either. It has a rather mellow smell when burnt that is pretty easily identifyable, but I guess only if you know what it smells like to begin with. It's all over the place here, so you can catch a whiff of smoke and say ahhh, that guy is burning hedge, or oak, or hickory, etc.

I wouldn't say it really "burns" hotter than any other wood. The flame is still yellow just like any other wood, or even newspaper or a candle for that matter. But with it's high BTU content it does release more energy in the stove which typically results in higher temps for the same volume of wood. I've never really had any trouble with overfiring or excess temps. The sparks are another matter, though! This last load seems to be particularly offensive. Kind of reminds me of the 4th of July fireworks that send out a shower of sparks and about 50% of the sparks end with a little "crackle". Luckily, they are mostly like sparks from a metal grinder, they look pretty spectacular, but don't really do much even if they land on bare skin.

Corey

 

[crow]

Does the wood have a strong smell?
I live across the street from woods that are filled with osage orange.
Occasionally the seedlings pop up in my yard. When you cut them they have a very distinctive sharp smell.
Not quite citrus , but similar.
When the tree is fresh cut , the sap is heavy and sticky.

My dad uses osage orange to make drum beaters (he sings on an inter-tribal american indian drum circle.)The drummers love osage , because once it's dry, and sealed ,you can pound on it with all your might , and it won't break.

I've always heard it was good for burning. Extremely hot. But I have never burned it.

A few people have told me that it can burn TOO hot. "nitro". Has anyone burned it regularly .
What's the story?

I've been burning straight hedge most of the winter. I have never noticed a strong smell in the green wood, of course, I 've never really put my nose right down to it either. It has a rather mellow smell when burnt that is pretty easily identifyable, but I guess only if you know what it smells like to begin with. It's all over the place here, so you can catch a whiff of smoke and say ahhh, that guy is burning hedge, or oak, or hickory, etc.

I wouldn't say it really "burns" hotter than any other wood. The flame is still yellow just like any other wood, or even newspaper or a candle for that matter. But with it's high BTU content it does release more energy in the stove which typically results in higher temps for the same volume of wood. I've never really had any trouble with overfiring or excess temps. The sparks are another matter, though! This last load seems to be particularly offensive. Kind of reminds me of the 4th of July fireworks that send out a shower of sparks and about 50% of the sparks end with a little "crackle". Luckily, they are mostly like sparks from a metal grinder, they look pretty spectacular, but don't really do much even if they land on bare skin.

Corey

That's good to know. There's a ton of it around here . I have been thinking about picking up the fallen branches and dead wood and drying them out for next year. Now I will.
:cheese:

 

[Riddler]

My vote goes toward mulberry or osage..I have osage orange and split a piece of it open and i also have mulberry and split a piece of it open. only thing i have noticed different between the two is the bark..the osage has more of a slicker bark and it is orangish in color hope this helps. But in my opinion they are both great to burn.

 

[Riddler]

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/forestry/Education/ohiotrees/osageorange.htm Here is a site i found not really sure how to do this but i hope it works

 

[JBinKC]

Although I am not familiar with the properties of the wood of the tree per se when looking at the bark at the base of the tree my vote is potentially horsechestnut or a younger ironwood tree before it gets the rectangular plated sheddy looking bark. Definitely not hedgeapple or mulberry when looking at the bark of the tree on page 2

 

[zogboy]

WOW, 1294 'views' of this thread, so far. Anyone think we can squeeze 2,000 out of it??

The only 100% sure way to know the type of wood is to use the leaves to ID the tree.
If this thread keeps going thoses trees will be in full bloom, then it will be easy.
My bet is still on the box alder.

 

[zogboy]

Well, I don't wanna sound overly arrogant, but given ENOUGH clues, one (including myself) can usually identify (at least) the species here in the northeast. I took a dendrology course at UConn and got quite good at it. For this particular species, I haven't been in a rush to join the hedge-burners-mutual-admiration-society's claim that the tree in question is osage-orange. They're just NOT native here in the northeast, tho some DO get planted as specimens.

Box ALDER?? I mis-spoke earlier when I said that I was familiar with it. I've heard of boxElder (Acer negundo), the member of the maple family with a pinnately compound leaf. I'm familiar with both red and speckled ALDER. Both are 'fire' species, invading recently exposed soils. I just cleared a speckled alder thicket last spring in order to open-up a view of the river that flows by my 'lower forty'....but I think it'll be a yearly maintainance thang, as the bare mineral soil will always be available for invasion.

You are correct it is named boxelder a member of the maple family, altho I have always heard the locals around here call them boxalder.

However I disagree that you can ID a tree by looking at the pics without the leaves on the internet.
Maybe if you could hold it , smell it , burn it, and check the bark close up you could make the ID.
But I stand by my statement the only 100% ID is the leaf.