"OREGANO" TREE?!?!?!?!

[Straubies]

Hey Everyone,
  It has been awhile since i've been on the site. Still growing and growing!!  Cool.
  But anyways, i work at a pallet factory and i was catching wood off of the pendu. For those who don't know what i call a "pendu" is the name brand of a gang saw system. We cut our own wood from cants anywhere from 4x4's to 8x8's.  
   Well monday morning i got this very very strong smelling piece and set it aside until i could look at it closer.  Everyone in the mill did not know for certain what it is, but it has a oregano smell to it. I wish i could get a picture but no digital camera. It is definitly a hardwood and the grain reminds me of maple. Very straight grained. The color is a like a light olive color.   IF ANYONE KNOWS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT PLEASE RESPOND!!  
Thanks
Straubies!

[Jeff]

No answers out there?

[Tom]

I've always got an answer, just not the right one.

The only thing down here that smells of cooking herbs would be Red Bay. It is definitely not green and I don't think it lives in PA.

The only tree that I know of that has a green insides is Poplar.  It doesn't have a smell like that down here though.  It's grain is straight. Might look like some Maples.

If you could find a leaf you could find out for sure real quick.  Poplar leaves are pretty definitive.

[SwampDonkey]

I beleive you have Sassafras Sassafras albidium (leaves lobed) because of your location. If your on the west coast it could be California-Laurel (Umbellularia californica) (leaves entire). Wood has a spicy aroma on freshly cut surfaces. But these woods are not typically green or olive, its brown, orange-brown to grayish brown. The only other possibilties are 'tulip tree' Liriodendron tulipifera , Magnolia, or blackgum because of the wood color, but they have no spicy odor.

http://www.iswonline.com/wwp/wom/sassafras.shtml

http://www.iswonline.com/wwp/wom/myrtle.shtml  
(Cal. Laurel)

Hope this helps

[Jeff]

When we had the pallet operation at the first mill I worked at, we bought cants from mills as far south as indiana, some of those mills would buy logs even farther south. We would end up getting species of wood that were pretty foreign to us.

[SwampDonkey]

If Straubies had a 7x or 10x close-up lens and took a shot of the end grain, it would be more definitive. A regular 35 mm can't be closer than 4 feet without this lens, and would be a big blur.  Untill we have a sample to see, I'm stickin with Sassafras because folks have steeped its wood for alot of herbal teas and such and it grows biggest in its southern range (3 feet dbh , 100 feet). You may get a unique tree that is even more spicier than others. Maybe its foreign wood, I can't imagine it though.

regards