Poplar?

[Jeffm1]

I thought it was quaking aspen at first looking at the bark but then I enlarged one pic to look closer at the leaves. Aspen leaves have smoother edges. Its not aspen. But the leaves look like some type of birch. White birch (also called paper birch) would have the peely bark you mentioned, but there are plenty of other birches it could be. Birch that I cut last year did have bit of a funky odor. Not too bad, but not attractive to the nose. I like having a smorgasbord of different woods to burn for different times of year and burn times. I don't always want a 10 hour fire that will cook me out of the house. So even if it were aspen I'd take it for fall and spring.

Aspen leaf:
http://www.treebrowser.org/assets/images/trees/lgimg/Populus_tremuloidesRL001USU8-29-13.jpg

Birch leaf:
(broken link removed)

Bottom line: Split it, stack it, dry it. Burn it. Its wood. Its heat.

 

[Pat32rf]

We have about three native "poplars" in central Ontario. Just a little too far north for the tulip variety but what we have is a fast growing "weed tree". One of the first when we clear cut. It stinks when we split it and rots fast if it is not split.
The wood is soft when cut but hardens when it dries. We did our front hall, kitchen, dining room and living room (about 700sq ft) with poplar from our bush. As long as we picked good boards when it came back from the mill it looks great. Leftover wood is hard to work with however because it is so stringy.
If you leave a stump it will often "copice" and produce burnable wood from a second cutting, especially when you have no other better wood to choose from.

 

[Wood Duck]

That wood is one of the Poplars (which does not include Tulip Poplar). I can't tell which one but for firewood they are similar. It will dry fast and burn fast.

Tulip Poplar is a completely different family and much better firewood in my opinion. I think Tulip Poplar is called Tulip Poplar because Tulips grow tall and straight, similar to a stand of aspen or several other trees that are true poplars. Most common names for trees were made up by farmers or lumberjacks, or explorers, not by taxonomists, so the common names often describe the appearance or uses of a tree more than the family relationships.

 

[Lake Girl]

Poplar more commonly used as pulpwood for paper or kraft making in our area. We used it for flooring in our house and has held up to six children and big dogs.

 

[StihlKicking]

That's white poplar, p. alba. No doubt, I took down a huge one for my dad a few months back. There non native but planted as ornamentals fairly regularly. Smell terrible burn worse.


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[Quad4012]

We have quite a bit of poplar where I am. I found them to be here relatively shallow rooted tree and whenever we get any large storms there generally the first to come down. In my opinion they do smell horrible when they burn however it is wood and it does burn well in the shoulder seasons .

 

[StihlKicking]

That wood is one of the Poplars (which does not include Tulip Poplar). I can't tell which one but for firewood they are similar. It will dry fast and burn fast.

Tulip Poplar is a completely different family and much better firewood in my opinion. I think Tulip Poplar is called Tulip Poplar because Tulips grow tall and straight, similar to a stand of aspen or several other trees that are true poplars. Most common names for trees were made up by farmers or lumberjacks, or explorers, not by taxonomists, so the common names often describe the appearance or uses of a tree more than the family relationships.

I'm pretty sure that the common name "tulip poplar" comes from the yellow tulip like flowers that bloom in the canopy of the tree in early spring. You are right that the trees grow very tall and straight. Lots of people have never noticed the flowers on the tree because the canopy is so high.


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