[Woodcarver] Iron Wood

[Bill Judt]

From: "Paul and Diana Guraedy" <birdcarver at ritternet.com>
Date: January 14, 2004 9:40:01 PM GMT-06:00
To: <woodcarver at six.pairlist.net>
Subject: Re: ironwood


If the ironwood you have was actually from the east then it is probably
hornbeam or hop hornbean. They are sometimes called muscle trees and a 
few
other names depending on the locale. There are a few others that are
referred to as ironwood, but, I believe that these are the most common.

The tree to which I referred looks very much like mesquite and, I 
think, is
strictly a Sonoran Desert tree (southern Arizona and Mexico). The wood 
is so
dark that the rings can be difficult to distinguish.

I had 12 different assignments as a Park Ranger and the change of names
(especially flowers and plants) never ceased to amaze me. A couple of 
quick
examples: in southern Indiana bell pepper was referred to as mango and 
in
the southwest "jumping cholla" was whatever the dominant species was
locally. It really shows the value of scientific nomenclature.

Most of the time this is simply an amusing anecdote. But, in the case of
ironwood, one needs to make sure that it is not the species that kills.

Paul Guraedy
Alpena, Arkansas
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