Coast Redwood
Sequoia sempervirens Family: Taxodoaceae
Coastal Redwood trees first appeared about 350 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, right around the time the dinosaurs began to disappear. Fossils have told us that 25 million years ago, redwoods covered much of the world. Over time the cooling and drying of the earth has reduced the habitat of the tree. It grows only along a narrow belt, 450 miles long and averaging only about 20 miles in width, from south western Oregon's boundary (8 miles north) south to Marin County, reappearing in the Santa Cruz and Santa Lucia mountains and down to sea level at Big Sur. The Redwood Belt is almost nightly blanketed by heavy sea fogs that is the lifeline to these magnificent trees and creates a Redwood forest floor of evergreen mosses and ferns. The Redwood is the tallest tree in the world (The Founder's Tree, in the woods at the North Dyerville Flat, is 364 ft tall.) most mature trees range from 200 - 340 ft (61-104m), with a diameter of 10-15ft(3-4.6m). It's roots only penetrate the earth 8-10 feet deep and can spread out as far as 125 feet. Roots will intertwine with neighboring trees to stabilize the trees to withstand storms. Coast Redwood trees mature at approximately 600 years, the oldest specimen lived to 2,200 years old. The average tree can live between 1000 to 1500 years. When a redwood tree is cut down, the high stump often sprouts from the base, rising a circle of sister trees. A fallen log may also send up shoots resulting in a straight row of trees, which puts down roots. This is a continuation of life is from the original tree, not a new generation from seed. For every million seeds a redwood tree produces, only one tree is likely to grow. A single tree can produce six million seeds per year.
Appearance
The Redwood tree sapwood is white and heartwood a dull reddish-brown. It is
straight grained, and the texture varies from fine to coarse. Roots of the
tree can have swirls in places and its burls are very attractive.
Properties
Average weight is 26lb/cu.ft (4220kg/m). The wood air-dries rapidly. It works
well with both hand and machine tools, however is prone to splintering. The
high tannin content of the wood gives the trees remarkable resistance to fungus
diseases and insect infestation. The bark has even a higher tannin content
than the wood.
Uses
In early times this wood was used extensively for building of houses and buildings.
In Redwood country, instances on record, tell of churches, banks, and buildings
built from a single tree. Other uses include; organ pipes, flumes, tanks,
coffins and many more uses. Its thick bark is used to make fiber board. Redwood
burls are very attractive and are made into furniture and of course, sculpture.
Veneers are also manufactured.
Douglas Fir
Pseudotsuga menziesii Family: Pinaceae
Douglas Fir is the most important timber tree of the western United States and British Columbia, with much of it growing in Oregon and Washington. It is a large coniferous tree, named for the British botanist David Douglas. The tree is known as Oregon pine and is also called yellow fir and occasionally Douglas Spruce, but is not closely related to either the Firs or the Spruces. The Douglas fir grows to an average height of 200ft (60m) and 6ft (2m) in diameter. Occasionally the tree grows to a height of 250 ft (76m).
Appearance
The heartwood is light reddish-brown with the sapwood slightly lighter. The
grain is mostly straight but can often be wavy or swirl. Texture is medium.
Properties
Weight is 33 lb/cu.ft (530kg/m) seasoned. The wood dries fairly rapidly without
much warping, but knots tend to split. It has high bending, stiffness and
crushing strength, and works well with hand and machine tools. Tools should
be kept sharp due to moderate blunting effect. It is subject to beetle attack
and is moderately durable and resistant to preservative treatment.
Uses
Nearly one-fourth of all the lumber produced for construction in the United
States comes from the Douglas fir and its saplings as you know are popular
as Christmas trees. Selected logs are used for decorative veneers for paneling.
Discoverers of this tree always associated it with the sites of old Indian villages. Its forest home, if any, has never been known. It was originally confined to three areas; the Walnut Creek Valley in Contra Costa County, the banks of the Sacramento river mainly at Walnut Grove and Wooden Valley east of Napa. Accounts from old settlers say that the trees on these sites were very fine, with single trunks up to six feet in diameter, the boles straight and clear of branches for fifty feet. The finest of them felled for lumber by pioneers who were familiar with the valuable Black Walnut of the east coast. So only a few great specimens remain. The population has of the tree has however increased a bit as communities made the effort to preserve the trees.
Appearance
Walnuts have very aromatic leaves and bark. The nuts are larger than that
of the Southern California Walnut, but the kernels are still hardly worth
eating, compared to that of the Black Walnut of commercial English Walnut.
However, 95 percent of California's 3,000,000 English Walnut trees are now
grafted Jugulans Hindsii, for it is far more immune to drought, gophers and
Oak root-rot. It has a dark brown and sometimes mottled heartwood with thick
pale sapwood. Wood is heavy, hard and coarse grained.
Properties
The weight is about 40lb/cu.ft(640kg/m) when seasoned. The wood requires care
in drying to avoid checking. It has medium bending and crushing strength with
low stiffness and shock resistance. It works well with hand and machine tools
with a moderate blunting of tools. Walnut is very durable and takes a stain
and polish well with a great finish. The sapwood is subject to attack by powder
post beetle, the heartwood is resistant to preservative treatment, but the
sapwood is permeable.
Uses
All species of walnut are extensively used for cabinets, furniture, rifle
butts and gun stocks, musical instruments, clock cases, turnery, carving and
sculpture. It is a major timber for plywood manufacture, and selected logs
are produced for veneers.
The first records of this tree date back to 1611 from Santo Domingo and were first cultivated in the gardens of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese. Perhaps half a century later it was introduced to southern France. It is also called Sweet Acacia or cassie, by the French. Its fragrant flowers, a deep rich yellow, are used to make fine perfumes. The tree is also known to be a native tree in western Texas and is called Huisache. The Acacia Farnesiana has been grown almost all around the world in tropical and subtropical countries.
Appearance
Bark of trunks are thin and peeling in large thin scales, reddish brown and
irregularly broken by long ridges. Flowers are deep yellow and fragrant. Wood
is hard close-grained and heavy.
Properties
The weight is 51 lbs/cu.ft. dry weight. The heartwood is rich reddish brown,
the sapwood is thin and pale.
Uses
Besides the use of the flowers for perfume the only uses that I found in my
research were for the use in turning and sculpture. I also have caved Black
Acacia.
The first valid botanical naming of the tree came in 1846 by Karl Theodore Hatweg, a botanist for London England. The only native growths of this tree are on the sea coast in Carmel, California. In 1929 at Cypress Point there were counted 7850 trees. Along the 17-mile drive through Pebble Beach there are 2700 trees. There is a grove at Point Lobos with fewer numbers. The trees on the coast are spectacular looking, growing into shapes formed by the wind. The trees are widespread in cultivation and grown in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South America, as well as up and down the coast of California.
Appearance
An evergreen with scale like leaves, the bark of young trunks are dark red-brown,
becoming thick, fibrous and ashy grey on large old trunks. The coastal tress
can attain a height of 60 ft., and a stem of 9ft. in circumference, with far
spreading branches, flat at the top. The shape of a cultivated tree is more
uniform and of symmetrical shape
Properties
The wood is very durable, hard and strong. The weight is 39 lbs. cu.ft. It
is resinous with a fragrant aroma.
