Wood ID

[EatenByLimestone]

If it’s ornamental, it could be grown almost anywhere. I’ve seen small ones growing up here in NY. They have great red color in the fall.

 

[Simonkenton]

Some of the pieces smell rotten, some smell like vinegar. Most of the drums were difficult to split due to being stringy. This is a very hard and dense hardwood.
The bark is infested with bugs. I saw dozens of little, 3/4 inch long grubs, white, looked like little hairless caterpillars. They fell out of the bark as I split the wood.
Hickory bark beetles?

 

[Simonkenton]

Sweet gum is a good guess. The bark looks like sweet gum. But it says sweet gum has no smell, this wood has a very strong smell.

 

[SpaceBus]

I guess you will find out when it's dry and ready to burn.

 

[Eman85]

We'll keep guessing. It's got coarse bark unlike a cedar from around here. Bark almost looks like black walnut but walnut is much darker brown wood but does smell funky.

 

[Simonkenton]

Bark bugs from mystery tree.

 

[Simonkenton]

This tree was growing in my brother's yard. He said it never put off those spiky balls that the sweet gum makes. So it isn't sweet gum, Dammit! Thought we had it ID'd. I am starting to think some species of hickory.

 

[Mutineer]

Those larvae are identical to what I find under the bark of most of the red oak I've split over the years.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

does he remember the leaves or if it really turned red in the fall? They even mention it growing in the forests of NC!

 

[Simonkenton]

It doesn't grow the spiky sweetgum balls. This could be it. Brother doesn't remember what color it turned in the fall.

 

[CincyBurner]

I’d guess sweet gum.

Based on OP's pictures (#1), it can't be sweetgum. It looks like it split cleanly (hand split ?)
Sweetgum wood splits stringy and gnarly, not cleanly.

 

[Caw]

We need a wood dna test

 

[whatyousmokin]

This tree was growing in my brother's yard. He said it never put off those spiky balls that the sweet gum makes. So it isn't sweet gum, Dammit! Thought we had it ID'd. I am starting to think some species of hickory.

We have a couple of 30-35 year old sweet gums in our yard. (We actually planted them, I love their shape and fall color in spite of the annoying spikey seeds they eventually produce). One just started producing the spikey seeds 2-3 years ago, others have not produced the seeds yet. They are fairly large trees at this stage. They don't start producing the seeds till they've reached 20-30 years old, same as oaks producing acorns... So the lack of spikey seeds may not mean you don't have sweet gum. How old was the tree?

 

[PAbeech]

I get those same bugs in my beech firewood. Normally if I peel the bark off that's where they are

 

[CincyBurner]

I'm thinking hickory too (maybe mockernut or pignut)
https:vt dendrology mockernut hickory

Bark bugs from mystery tree.

Hickories susceptible to several different borer.

Most of the drums were difficult to split due to being stringy.

I noticed that ease of splitting hickory varies. Some split almost as oak, the last hickory I split was tough, not just wood was more fibrous/ stringy but because it had been repeatedly attacked by borer and splitting wood at borer sites seemed to make it more difficult.

it says sweet gum has no smell, this wood has a very strong smell.

I never noticed swetgum wood itself has a smell, but leaves twigs have an almost turpentine smell. Its my recollection heartwood is light/ white (not a big fan of splitting sweetgum). Sweetgum leaves very distinct star-shaped leaves. Hickory has characteristic light white sapwood surrounding darker (even reddish) heartwood.
Hickory leaf is compound.
Hickory wood has a distinct albeit difficult to describe smell/ odor: savory, unpleasant, manure, humus but not acidic/ vinegar like red oak wood.

 

[Simonkenton]

The mystery tree is 50 years old. Growing on a flat area on top of a mountain, this land was a corn field long ago, the farm was abandoned in 1950, and the woods took over.

 

[Woody Stover]

Bark bugs from mystery tree.

View attachment 306733

I see those bark borers here as well, in several different species of wood.
I'm pretty sure those gave the '60s Star Trek writers the idea for the planet-eater.. 😏

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Not quite sure exactly what it is but that is some really cool looking wood!