Tree of the day

[bwstout]

We posted sawing some last week !
  From earlier...Didn't anyone as a kid make tea from sassafras roots ?

We use to dig the roots after Church on Sundays and Mom would boil it for tea at dinner time, evertime I smell it brings back the "Good-ol- Days" then I remember how poor we were not sure why we call them "Good" ;D

[LeeB]

We posted sawing some last week !
  From earlier...Didn't anyone as a kid make tea from sassafras roots ?

What do you mean as a kid? I still do.

[tule peak timber]

 :D

[Ljohnsaw]

Looks like Eucalyptus.  Quite stinky!

[caveman]

Hints: Has a menthol medicinal smell like Vick's vapor rub.  Native to China and Japan.  Garlon will kill it.  They produce drupes which birds eat and often deposit in disturbed areas where the seeds sprout.  This tree is found from at least Texas to Georgia.

Extracts from this tree have been used to treat toe nail fungus, heart disease, itchy skin, improve circulation, open airways, and even treat hemorrhoids (works even better than eating a bowlful of habaneros).

It is considered an invasive in Florida even though it is often used as a fast growing yard tree.

[tule peak timber]

 

 

[samandothers]

Yes on the sassafras tea!  I would dig roots on farm and bring to mom or my grandmother to make tea.  Have not had the tea in a while.

[caveman]

Today's tree was Camphor or  (Cinnamomum camphora).  It is used for Vick's Vapo Rub.  When I was a child with bronchitis, twice a year, my grandmother would slather the Vick's all over my chest and back and then wrap me in saran wrap.  It must have worked.  I am still alive.  

[tule peak timber]

We are putting some in the kiln next week for a headboard and some furniture.

[caveman]

 

 

 I should have gotten better pictures of this one but this is all I have. Southside should be all over this one.  Hint:  one of my mentors told me that if I saw this tree growing, do not try to build a house there.  Magicman has sawn some of these.  I have never had the opportunity to get one big enough to saw.

[ellmoe]

Wet area?

[WDH]

Wood is light and soft.  Was used for wicker furniture. 

[Magicman]

From the hints and from what I can see of the leaves it should be this:


 


 


 
I have sawn many Mbf for several different customers.  This job was ~10Mbf.

[Magicman]

 

 


 
A different customer.  All of this species that I have sawn has been dried, T&G, and used as wall paneling.  ;D

These boards are 1" X16". 

[LeeB]

The wood was used at one time to make artificial limbs.

[Southside]

I had to Ash myself why I was not seeing the forest through the trees.

[Don P]

Was this one claimed to make the best charcoal for black powder?

[Woodpecker52]

bark cures a headache also.

[Magicman]

??  Are we all looking at the leaves in Reply #209? 

[caveman]

Yes, the charcoal made from this wood is supposed to be good for making black powder.

Yes, this tree grows in the wetter areas.  I think I read that this tree grows in 36 states and a lot of Canada.  It evidently gets to saw log size in Mississippi based on the pictures MM posted with the nearly BLACK heartwood.

The leaves also have small serrations.

[tule peak timber]

 

 

[btulloh]

Does it have a cousin that weeps?

[Magicman]

It evidently gets to saw log size in Mississippi based on the pictures MM posted with the nearly BLACK heartwood

 
Yes it does on both counts.  Some of those logs in the background were easily in the 18" - 20"+ class.  The color variation can be dramatic from black to a very pleasing amber.

[Magicman]

 

 
Another example.


 
Same species but very different colored heartwood.

I love to saw it. 

[caveman]

That one did not challenge any of you.  I doubt tomorrow's will either but the leaves will be far from simple.  Rob, that rocker is phenomenal.  The black willow (Salix nigra) around here gets big enough to make some artificial limbs but I hope that I do not need them any time soon. MM, good looking wood inside those logs.

Time to go back out and attempt to start the mill's engine and start sawing some mostly really small cedar logs that were brought to me earlier today.  At least it has cooled off to the lower 90's now that it is almost 6 p.m.  I even saw a cloud today but no rain for the crunchy, brown grass.