World of JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL WOOD COLLECTORS SOCIETY A Dedicated Group of Wood Collectors and Crafters Volume 73, Number 3 May/June 2020

2020 — The Year of Wood Education World of Wood Vol. 73, No. 3 ISSN 1068-7300 May/June 2020 The International Wood Collectors Society, founded in 1947, is a non-profit society advancing information on wood.

Contents Officers and Trustees President Gary Green, Indiana, USA President’s Page ...... 3 Phone: E-mail: [email protected] Vice (2nd Past) President: Garry Roux, Illinois, USA Seeking a Secretary Treasurer ...... 4 Phone: E-mail: [email protected] Wildlife & Forest Conservation in Thailand . . . . 5 President Elect: Dennis Wilson, Alpena, Michigan, USA Phone: E-mail: [email protected] Showing off a Wood Collection ...... 6 Secretary-Treasurer: Interim: Patti Dickherber, 12 August Alp Ct. Phone: E-mail: [email protected] World’s Oldest Fossil Forest ...... 6 Publications Chairman: Willem Hurkmans — Crete, Greece Handheld Circular to Conversion . . . 7 Phone: E-mail: [email protected] First Past President: Elaine Hunt, , USA The History of D2434 debeuzevillei . . . 11 Phone: E-mail: [email protected] Endowment Fund Chairman: Duane Keck, , USA 2022 Australian Conference and AGM ...... 13 Phone: E-mail: [email protected] Archivist: Dennis Wilson, Alpena, Michigan, USA Shrubwoods of the World ...... 14 Phone: E-mail: [email protected] A Trip to Argentina: Part I - Patagonia ...... 16 Regional Trustees AustralAsia (2019-2022) Ian Hefferman, Victoria, Official National of the World ...... 24 Canada: Réjean Drouin (2020-2022) Regis- ...... 26 EuroAfrica (2018-2021): Willem Hurkmans, Crete, Greece UK (Interim): Ramsey Pattison, Essex, United Kingdom Member Listings and Requests ...... 27 USA Central (2018-2021): Violet Oman, Missouri, USA USA Great Lakes (2018-2020): Roger Pletcher, Indiana, USA Australian State Tree Emblems: Salmon Gum . . . . . 28 USA NE (2016-2021): Mark Peet, Pennsylvania, USA USA NW (Interim): Alan Curtis, Oregon, USA 2020 Annual General Meeting, Registration . . . . 30 USA SE (2019-2022): Don Smith, Florida, USA Memorial — Judy Owings ...... 30 USA SW (Interim): Dave Mouat, , USA Committee Chairs and Service Providers Wood Meets ...... 31 All-Mail Auction: Chair is Chuck Ray, Pennsylvania, USA Membership Committee: Bob Chastain, Indiana,USA. Darwin’s Barberry ...... 32 New-member Correspondent: Garry Roux, Illinois, USA Nominations Committee: Garry Roux, Illinois, USA Corporate Membership: OPEN Student Membership: OPEN Membership Directory: John Lyons, Victoria, Australia Website Committee: Art Lee, Maryland, USA Webmaster: Curtis Smeltzer, Indiana, USA If your WoW is damaged, Wood Import Permits: Alan Curtis, Oregon, USA contact Garry Roux for a Wood Specimen Kits: Gary Green, Indiana, USA replacement.

World of Wood is published bimonthly by the International Wood Collectors Society (IWCS). IWCS is devoted to distributing information on collecting wood, correctly identifying and Editor Mihaly Czako PhD naming wood specimens, and using wood in creative crafts. Contributions for publication 305 Century Dr. may be educational, scientific, technical or of general interest to members and relevant to the Columbia, SC 29212-3612, USA purposes of the Society. Papers may be refereed by an Editorial Board of technically trained Phone: +1-803-237-5713 members. Authors pledge that their articles contain only materials they are copyright holders E-mail: [email protected] of, and short quotes for which original authors are credited. The phrases ‘World of Wood’, ‘IWCS Wood Data Sheet’ and all materials contained herein are © Copyright protected by the Associate Editors International Wood Collectors Society. Address requests to reprint material to the Editor. Alan Curtis — Oregon, USA World of Wood is published as a benefit to members of the IWCS, a non-profit organization Ed Herst — Colorado, USA of botanists, dendrologists, and other scientists, technologists, wood collectors, hobbyists and Morris Lake — , Australia crafts people for mutual assistance and reciprocation. Online version is in color. David Mouat PhD — California, USA Applications are available from the Secretary-Treasurer or from the IWCS website. Dues and Nelis Mourik — South Holland, Netherlands address changes also should be directed to the Secretary-Treasurer. Mark Peet — Pennsylvania, USA We encourage your membership in our unique international organization. Chuck Ray PhD — Pennsylvania, USA All Countries “On-Line Only”: (Couples) US $35/yr.; 3 yrs/$90; 5 yrs/$125 USA Hardcopy Journal: (Couples) US $40/yr.; 3 yrs/$105; 5 yrs/$150 Australia Hardcopy Journal: (Couples) US $45/yr.; 3 yrs/$120; 5 yrs/$175 Webmaster: [email protected] Other countries Hardcopy Journal: (Couples) US $55/yr.; 3 yrs/$150; 5 yrs/$225 Corporate “On-Line Only”: US $125/yr; 3 yrs/$325; or 5 yrs/$450; all countries Worldwide web : http://www.woodcollectors.org Corporate Hardcopy Journal: US $150/yr; 3 yrs/$375; or 5 yrs/$525; all countries Student Member: US $15 per year; online only, all countries.

Cover: Showing of a Wood Collection. Story is on page 6. Background: Sakae burl (Combretum quadrangulare Kurz), native to Thailand, from the collection of Mihaly Czako.

2 World of Wood May/June 2020 President’s Message Gary Green #6654L I can imagine that regardless of where you live on this wonderful planet you are being bombarded with news about COVID-19, both bad and good. In Indiana, USA our governor has imposed a stay at home order with travel only to essential stores and services permitted. As a homeowner and woodworker, I adapted quite well to the order. In the last couple of months, I have processed every bit of wood destined for wood specimens — thousands of them. They are now all cut, sanded, labeled and re-shelved in alphabetical order. My for sale list increased from 17 to 27 pages. I never had to leave my shop and my letter carrier will pick up orders.

Spring has arrived and brought with it dozens of outdoor tasks. An amateur woodworker/full time landscaper contacted me stating that she was laid off and I immediately put her to work cleaning beds, trimming hedges and bushes, mowing the lawn and mulching. I’m in the process of removing dirty gravel from my driveways and applying new limestone. Soon I’ll have a lawn to be proud of. I go to bed happy but tired — certainly not lonely and depressed.

Then we have the September AGM in Alpena, Michigan, USA to look forward to. The board and I are already working on proposals for the business meeting. Northern Michigan will be beautiful with fall colors on display. Christine and I plan on going on the self-guided lighthouse tour and make the ferry trip to Mackinac Island — no cars on this Island. If you haven’t already done so, send in your registration. Dennis and Tamara Wilson have been hard at work with preparations. Be assured that if it becomes necessary to cancel the meet, you will be fully refunded.

The business of the IWCS continues as usual. Final preparations for the new Directory are underway and the 2020- 21 budget has just been approved. Dennis Wilson will take the helm as President at the September AGM. Rick Long #9978 from will run for Vice President, unopposed unless someone else has interest. Rejean Drouin, #6683 has stepped in as our new Canadian Trustee. Thanks, Rejean! This us in urgent need of two positions: President Elect and All Mail Auction Coordinator. It is also past time to come up with a venue and hosts for the 2021 AGM. Please contact me or your trustee if you have interest; we will be happy to provide you with details.

2020 Lake Yale, Florida Woodfest (WoW March/April 2020) — Correction by Art Lee #7984L Thank you to Rick Long for pointing out an error on page 20 in my article about the 2020 Lake Yale meeting. Nevada Rye was misidentified as making both the pecan brittle and almond . Nevada did make the pecan brittle; how- ever, Pam Munger has been making and donating the almond bark for the craft auctions at several meetings, which has brought in significant income for the Society. Thank you, Pam!

A Note to Contributors Please submit articles as you complete them. They could be placed into future editions so each edition will present a balance of topics. Last minute changes before June 15 for the July/August 2020 issue. May/June 2020 World of Wood 3 Wildlife and Forest Conservation Challenges in Thailand Lon Grassman, PhD #10295 A&M University-Kingsville, USA I am a carnivore biologist/conservationist who spent about 15 years conducting research in Thailand in the 1990s-2000s. Thailand has some unique challenges to wildlife and forest conservation, and I highlight a few examples in this article. My carnivore research focused on the wild cat community, which had received very little attention prior to the 1990s. I used live-trapping, radio-tracking, diet analysis, and camera-trapping to study several felid , including tiger, leopard, clouded leopard, golden cat, marbled cat and leopard cat. From this research, I was able to ascertain forest use and home range sizes for these species, as well as prey preferences. In general, radio-tracked cats used dry and hill forests the most, as these forest types dominated (75%) my study site in north-central Thailand. Mixed deciduous, dry dipterocarp, bamboo and grasslands, formed the remainder of the vegetative community. Prey preference was varied for most small to medium-sized cats with assorted species ranging from mouse-size to small deer. Larger cats such as leopard and tiger were limited to select larger species such as deer and wild boar.

Hill evergreen forest typical of Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, Radio collared clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) Chaiyaphum Province

Clouded leopards have the longest canines of all wild cats, relative Anesthetized black leopard (Panthera pardus) in hill to body size. evergreen forest Within wildlife sanctuaries logging and hunting are illegal and often are a challenge to control. Typically, forest encroachment occurs either through a gradual chipping away of the outside boundary through farming practices; through medicinal and herbal forest gathering; or through organized bands of individuals logging select trees within the heart of a forest. Farming encroachment is rarely contested by the authorities, as the acreages may be considered inconsequential. 4 World of Wood May/June 2020 However, in aggregate, total forest loss for these encroachments may be significant. Medicinal collecting and herbal forest harvesting are typically conducted on a small scale, usually by villagers living next to a protected area, and their impact is almost non-existent. However, more impactful illegal logging appeared to focus on several species: Afzelia xylocarpa (“mai makha”, ต้นมะค่าโมง) and macrocarpus (“mai pradoo”, ไม้ประดู่) for furniture and construction materials, and Aquilaria crassna (“mai kitsana”, ต้นกฤษณา) for expensive perfumes and .

Farmed field next to protected forest edge Herbal woody specimens collected by local villagers within the wildlife sanctuary Impacts to the forest from illegal logging differ tremendously. The felling of select large mai makha and mai pradoo trees, while generally bad for maintaining a mature tree community and causing a disturbance to wildlife, had a relatively low impact on the forests that I worked in. In general, several trees were felled and the logs resawn and packed out within a few days. Provided that the loggers did not cut larger swaths of trees and use more manpower, the impacts were minimal.

Resawn mai makha (Afzelia xylocarpa, suspected) boards from illegal Mai kitsana (Aquilaria crassna) tree next to interpretive sign logging along nature trail in Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary However, the greater problem lies with mai kitsana logging. Mai kitsana, or agarwood (Aquilaria crassna) has a high priced, aromatic, resinous heartwood that is in great demand for incense and perfume in the international market. In Thailand, the method to illegally harvest kitsana trees was to form large bands of 20+ men, and roam through a forest slowly to find and harvest select parts of the tree. Often times these excursions lasted for 3-4 weeks. Not every kitsana tree has agarwood resin, which is caused by a mold infection introduced by the feeding of an Ambrosia beetle. As a consequence, many kitsana trees are hacked and damaged beyond survival to find those with agarwood. Those kitsana trees which have the aromatic resin typically have their and heartwood hacked into smaller pieces for packing out of the forest. Besides damage to the trees, the main issue from a wildlife conservation perspective was the impact that these people had on wildlife prey populations. Bush meat is the primary source of food for kitsana harvesters and many deer, monkeys, birds or any other animals that could be killed were taken during their time in the forest. The impact of this depletion of prey species for the felid carnivore community can be significant, particularly for larger cats which rely on deer and larger ungulate prey. This problem is compounded because large forest ungulates exist naturally at low densities, unlike

May/June 2020 World of Wood 5 grassland ungulates. Additionally, kitsana hunters would not hesitate to kill cats for meat and to sell their pelts at wildlife markets. The remedy for these conservation challenges, which occur in many parts of Southeast Asia lies primarily with the local forest rangers. I have travelled extensively throughout Asia and have experienced unmotivated, poorly trained rangers barely maintaining a presence in protected areas. However, I have also experienced, with admiration, rangers who are fully committed and enthusiastic to patrol and apprehend suspects. The common denominator for all the rangers is that they are poorly paid. The economic realities of some regions may dictate that low pay is not going away anytime soon. However, in areas where I have witnessed top-notch rangers, the key, unsurprisingly, has been the good leadership. When patrol leaders and managers take the initiative and work alongside the regular rangers, good things happen. The results of consistent patrolling and apprehensions is that word spreads and loggers/poachers are less inclined to test their luck…and the forest and wildlife ultimately win. A Brilliant New Way to Show off a Bit of Editor’s Note My Wood Collection World’s Oldest Fossil Forest Uncovered in New York by Alan Curtis #1132HL, SU Cecil Robertson (#8806) alerted us to a BBC News report (https:// www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50840134) last December. I was pleasantly surprised by my daughter’s gift The story has been published and illustrated in the National Geographic to me this past Christmas. Of course, she has been magazine also. Science Reporter Laura Foster: “Scientists believe exposed to my hobby of collecting wood for many they’ve found a forest so gigantic that it once stretched beyond Penn- years. She has often commented that the prettiest sylvania from the quarry in Cairo, New York, USA — nestled in the ones are put away in boxes where no one but myself foothills of the Catskill Mountains.” can see them. Occasionally, I show her (and others) some of the nicest ones but then back into boxes Fossilized wood of the two types of trees identified here had been found they go. So, she had a solution that really surprised before but this is the earliest fossilized forest dating back to the middle me. of the Devo- nian, the 4th Kirsti (my daughter) and her husband Don, recently period of the set up a wood shop at their home. That really Paleozoic surprised me as they live on a farm where, in the Era (~400 past, there were animals to care for. I have stored million years some in their barn, and they selected some bp, before the (Castanea sp., grown in Oregon) to use for Carboniferous the framework for the bench. period). This forest allows The top side of the bench became the “show off” scientists to place to display 13 of my prettiest wood specimens. study how Yes, benches are made to sit on, but I don’t dare trees evolved do that on this one. A nice variety of colorful wood and how, as specimens now make up the top surface. See the they fixed car- cover for the photo. bon dioxide, reduced its From the left: concentration , African blackwood in the atmo- Platymiscium yucatanum, Granadillo, Mexico sphere. Acer negundo with pink fungus stain, Box elder, We do not USA find trees like Rhus typhina, Staghorn . Maryland, USA these around Olea europaea, Olive, Grown: California, USA anymore. A sp., Purpleheart, Latin America reconstruction Acer macrophyllum, Bigleaf , curly figure, of one of them Oregon, USA is shown here. Metopium brownei, Chechem or Black poisonwood, It was neither Mexico a fern nor a Diphysa carthagenensis, Ruda, Mexico gymnosperm Juniperus scopulorum, Rocky Mountain , (conifer), but Colorado, USA something in Hibiscus elatus, Blue mahoe, Jamaica between. brevifolia, Pacific yew, Oregon, USA Dalbergia sp., , Tropics Reconstruction of the extinct progymnosperm plant Archaeopteris The bench is 43 inches (~ 109 cm) long and stands macilenta based on fossils from the Catskill Mountains of New York 19 inches (~ 48 cm) high. A beautiful (Walton Formation, Hancock), By Retallack - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, display of some pretty . https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48044581 6 World of Wood May/June 2020 Handheld to Table Saw Conversion by Willem Hurkmans #8761L At my previous home in the penchant for precision I frequently Netherlands I used to have a heavy asked for advice from several friends, duty Robland , including IWCS members Nelis including a large , planer-, Mourik and Henk Bakker. Others and circular saw. When we moved were ready to supply good ideas when to Greece where we’re renting a they heard about my project through house, I saw no realistic possibility of Facebook. I decided to go slowly, shipping or storing it, so it was sold to check everything several times and re- my friend Henk Bakker. Over here I measure all dimensions. bought a lightweight table saw made by Einhell, a very reasonable machine Although I did not make extensive at a fair price. After it gave up, I drawings, I made a list of parts I Figure 1. The Makita handheld circular bought the same type again, the first would need and used several sketches, saw I used, as I got it from the store one having performed very reasonably not as a definite base for layout, but of the working table [16 1/8” wide, for its selling price, 170 Euros/ US$ every time an idea occurred to me, I about 41 cm], then with the mould in 183. That one lasted me another 3 made a sketch or wrote it down. That place, screwed on the right hand part years, then it started to be unsafe to saved a lot of work and frustration, [4” or a little over 10 cm wide] with use and I scrapped it. Such machinery because if you give yourself ample just a trifle of play, so the mould [i.e. I found not suitable for heavy work, time to think something over, you’ll the future guide bar that slides in the so over the years I started looking for gradually arrive at better solutions. slot] could easily slide, without too a reasonably priced table saw which much aberration. I fixed the narrow, I did not find. The alternative was to Did I find the best solutions? Not right hand part with just one screw, convert a heavy duty handheld circular likely, but they are good enough for allowing me to align the slot exactly. saw to a table saw. me. Then I went to several shops and I fixed it for the time being using duct bought what I thought I would need. tape, then finally secured it using Perusing the Internet, I came across To ensure enough stiffness, I decided screws. Then I also sanded that part several examples, some of which I to use the heaviest and best quality where it abuts the slot. The guide used thought had useful features. After I can get here, one inch thick in pushing the workpieces for cross doing some homework I decided that I [25.4 mm], to cut the table surface and sawing was later screwed onto the would build my own, starting from the two of the sides from. The two other mould. Note that the two top parts following parameters: sides are a trifle less heavy, of 20 mm were only screwed on, not glued. thickness. The general idea is that — It must fit on a table or you make a box from which the lower The dimensions of the working table undercarriage and, if necessary, be board is missing and fix the handheld are 31.5” x 21” [80 x 54 cm], but clamped on. Table extensions must be saw, upside down, onto the upper in case you would like to do such easy to fit and remove board which is the working table. a project yourself, use dimensions — It must be able to cut relatively Because the circular saw will be fixed that suit you — possibly you’d large green wood; not really very large onto the lower face of the working like it larger in case you will have because my is better for that. table, the sawing disk protruding a permanent location for storing — It must be as safe as possible, above through a slot in the table, you and working. The really important and the handheld saw used must will lose some of the cutting depth. aspect of the ‘box’ is that it should come from a maker that has a good That’s why I looked for a handheld be absolutely rigid. That’s why, reputation for heavy duty machinery. saw that not only is of reputable make after assembling the 6-part box and — It must be easy to transport, since but had a good cutting depth. The one counting the 2 working top parts I will have to store it inside the house I arrived at was the Makita HS0600 separately, I reinforced all corners and use it outside, for lack of a good that can cut as deep as 4 1/4” [105 using sections of 2” by 3” [50 x 75 working shed. mm] which cost me 285 Euro/ USD mm] of good quality, i.e. 308. Its only drawback is that it has without large knots; they were glued Possibly you guys think of Greece as no — but I thought I and screwed on to the inside corners. a permanently warm place, but it can could solve that during the conversion An extra requirement is that my actually freeze where we live and our process. assembly can easily pass through the winter is typically very rainy — we doors we have here. get the same amount of rain that falls The working surface consists of two in London, UK, but we get all of it in parts [cut using the handheld saw, Now we come to one reason for the winter season. before its conversion] that are fixed to not gluing the working top on — I the narrow sides, with a slot of 1 1/4” wanted to cut a slight recess on the So, condensation/moisture would be [31 mm] over all its length. That slot lower side of the tabletop, where the a real risk if I’d store the saw outside, is necessary to accommodate the guide sole of the handheld circular saw even under a cover. Now, it stands in that can push objects for cross sawing. would fit in. In this sole, made of the study and doubles as a side table. I first sawed a mould the width of the high-quality aluminium, I drilled 11 gap and sanded it, then cut, sanded holes for accommodating bolts and — Realizing that I have no natural and screwed on the left hand part nuts to fix the circular saw under the May/June 2020 World of Wood 7 larger working top part. I realized Using tie wraps, I then locked the saw over 3” [7.5 cm] of plywood, above that, if ever parts of the machine get in ‘ON’ position. I had realized before and below. These windows also damaged, it will be the most exposed that I would need a switch placed on enable clamping the top part to the parts, i.e. the two working top parts. the outside of the box for easy access, undercarriage. By ‘only screwing’ these parts on, I to switch the saw on and off; so it will have the possibility of replacing was a matter of fixing a ‘switchable’ them if ever they get worn out, or extension cord onto the machine I when something happens that knocks a was building, and using that as my tabletop part out of alignment. ON/OFF switch. That was also easily So now I unscrewed the wide, left achieved by a few holes and hand, top part and flipped it over. using tie wraps. Then I securely fixed I then set the handheld saw at zero the original cable to one of the sides, depth, outlined its sole on the lower to prevent it getting in the way of the face, and using guides made of saw when the depth setting is changed. wooden beams and a top router, cut a recess the size of the sole, only 3/16” Figure 6. Slot cut into the working top [about 5 millimetres] deep; it had to be just sufficient to prevent the sole from After re-screwing the tabletop-plus- moving, and to be shallow enough saw onto the box, I now had a table in order not to weaken the table top saw that could be used to make significantly. After I cut the recess, cross cuts only. To enable it cutting I drilled the holes for the bolts and lengthwise I had thought of the screwed the handheld saw onto the following solution. At the ‘operating’ lower face of the tabletop [still at zero side of the saw table, I screwed on a depth setting]. Then I hooked up the strip of my heaviest plywood at about machine and, securing it firmly with 1” below the tabletop surface. Onto vice clamps, let it cut its own slot in Figure 4. How the original machine cable that strip I screwed another, wider is fixed. Note the small recess in one side to the tabletop. After having done that, let the power cable through. strip that comes flush with the tabletop I found I had a cutting depth [really a surface, using long screws that also sit height] of 3 1/4” [82 mm] maximum. in the side proper. I now had a Since I never plan to cut at an angle, perpendicular to the of the saw, I also fixed permanently the angle that enabled me to insert another guide setting at ‘perpendicular’. bar, onto which I initially screwed the lengthwise guide. This worked very well.

Figure 2. View from below, of the hand- held saw now fixed to the bottom of the working top, showing the tie wraps locking Figure 7. Showing the working top with its the switch in ‘ON’ position two grooves for the guides. Note that the riving knife is not yet in place.

Both these guides were made of plywood tubes that gives you quite a sturdy guide. After some use, I found Figure 5. reinforcement strip and recess to that this works well enough when enable the inflow of air — you don’t want cross cutting, but not when lengthwise the machine to overheat inside a box! The air can flow out through the slot between cutting (ripping) — at a certain point the working top parts. the guide began to wobble a bit. I thought of two solutions that could be As I found out, the depth setting could satisfactory: (a) using a much heavier, be hard to reach, but I had already wider square tube type guard, and (b) Figure 3. Extension cable with switch that acts as my ON/OFF switch. This cable thought of that. Cutting ‘windows’ cutting triangles from plywood. In plugs into a second extension cable, so I in the sides proved to solve that very both cases, this gives you more length have to set 2 switches at ‘ON’ to make the well. These windows are some 20” along the sliding guide bar to fix the machine run. Good for safety, I thought. x 6” [50 x 12.5 cm] which leaves guide on to, making the guide more 8 World of Wood May/June 2020 rigid. Since the latter option seemed to of the working table, aligned with the me stiffer and possibly lighter weight, plane of the saw. However, at the start I cut two identical triangles, screwed this caused some problems. Not on them together, and then screwed them account of being as high as the teeth on to the guide bar. That, so far, has rise above the table — but because the worked out quite well. Moreover, this riving knife was too long. The solution system enables me, in combination proved easy enough: grinding a part with the windows I cut in the sides, of this structure off, then removing the to use a vice to fix the guide in burrs and sanding really well. a given position in case I have to cut many work pieces to the same width. Figure 11. Undercarriage, showing the ‘containment edges’ where the saw part can just be fit in.

Figure 9. The original riving knife that proved to be too long. Figure 8. Showing the original guide bar for ripping Another feature I had thought about from an early stage, was easy transport. The complete top part weighs in at about 28 kilos (~62 lbs) and if I have to haul it from my study to the working station outside that would prevent me from using it as much as I really wanted to. Not just because it’s heavy — you need to pass some narrow spots and go through 2 Figure 10. The modified riving knife that works well. Figure 12. Showing the carriage bolts used doors. After having rejected the idea for construction. The nuts on these bolts of suitcase type handles, I thought I soon discovered that building an can, if needed, be tightened up over time, I’d mount caster wheels on what, in undercarriage for the purpose would since this type of bolt is designed for that. use, is the ‘back’ side of the sawing allow more flexibility of design table. On the outside I first screwed on [compared to using an existing some extra reinforcement strips which table]. I was well advised to make the enabled me to use longer screws for undercarriage as heavy as possible, fixing the casters. These casters are to prevent the entire structure from really cheap and are provided with a being top heavy. So I bolted together brake that I apply when the table saw an undercarriage consisting of a frame is stored in the study [and when the made of 3.5” to 4”x4” [8 to 10 x 10 machine is in use, explained in caption cm] beams, with 3”x3” [7.5 x 7.5 below]. When stored the top is 36” [97 cm] legs, some doubling beams for cm] above the floor; suitable to double extra strength and rigidity and a lot as a side table. of cross and diagonal ties that also promote rigidity; its weight is about Now I had to give thought to safety 75 lbs [30 kilos]. It’s easy to add more measures, i.e. the riving knife, and weight on its lower part, using large fixing the table saw rigidly onto a square ‘cheese boxes’ filled with iron table, or undercarriage. The riving scraps or rocks from the garden. It knife was an interesting adventure. I really gives me a very solid base and knew that it would be a vital safety because its major parts are fixed using measure to have one; but how sizeable carriage bolts, it’s really rigid. would I fix it rigidly enough without The saw table part is put on the top Figure 13. Detail of undercarriage — weakening the structure? I soon came where it is contained by strips fixed wooden leg extension that was tapped into a certain depth, then marked, removed up with the design that in altered shape onto the outside of the undercarriage and glued in to make all legs exactly the I still use: a ‘square iron’ used for top; it can also be clamped onto the same length. In case the frame warps fixing floor beams together that I fixed undercarriage, using the ‘windows’ cut over time, this pin is easily drilled out and into a slight recess I cut into the top in the sides. The undercarriage is, and replaced. May/June 2020 World of Wood 9 will be, outside all the time, under a plastic cover. However, I expect that over time it could warp a little due to movement of the wood in service; I have a very slightly tapering wedge that I now use to remove the last trifle of play.

Figure 14. Top part in its working position. Figure 17. Cross cutting bar in place, with The casters mean the machine is easy to line indicating the length of a wood sample move around, given a solid surface. To marked on it. Also note that the guide enable easier movement the casters can is less than 1/16” removed from the saw be locked, pointing inwards, so they don’t blade. hamper the top part sitting well on the undercarriage.

Figure 20. Clamp in place on top & undercarriage.

Figure 18. Containment strips on the top of Figure 15. The modified guide for ripping. the undercarriage. On Nelis’ advice, a higher edge has been screwed on, making the guide 3” [7.5 cm] high.

Figure 19. Showing the wedge, I use for aligning top and undercarriage. Since a clamp is also used, no wobbling is possible and loosening through vibration is prevented. The only thing I have so far not Figure 21. Clamp fixing length cutting really solved to my satisfaction, is guide in position. that I have to lift the top part onto the Acknowledgements — Thanks are undercarriage. But in fact, that’s a due to Henk Bakker, Nelis Mourik, minor inconvenience — much better Albert Versteegde and others who than leaving the sawing table outside, commented on the project and/or exposed to moisture and condensation. asked shrewd questions that Figure 16. Showing tube structure of cross finally contributed to a result cutting guide. I find quite satisfactory. 10 World of Wood May/June 2020 The History of D2434 Eucalyptus debeuzevillei by John Lyons #9737 Amongst the many interesting specimens salvaged by Ian McLaughlin and other IWCS members a decade ago from the CSIRO Dadswell Collection is a very unassuming looking back sawn pale ash Eucalypt labelled D2434. Ian inscribed this as Euc. de-beuzevillei and it was purchased by Keith Towe in 2012. Keith subsequently labelled this with the common name Giant Snow Gum, which as we shall see later is overly optimistic. I purchased this specimen along with all of Keith’s collection a couple of years later and hadn’t given it much thought until Jim Schubert provided me with a microscope slide of his Dadswell samples including D2434 prepared in April 2019. The species is named in honour of W. A. W. de Beuzeville who had collected the botanical type specimen in 1919 and provided it to Joseph H. Maiden at the Sydney Herbarium (National Herbarium of ). Maiden described it in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of NSW in 1920 and so it became known officially as Eucalyptus debeuzevillei Maiden. He wrote that the type was collected from Jounama Peaks, NSW by Wilfred Alexander Watt de Beuzeville, Assistant Forester, Forestry Commission, December 1919. Interestingly, the Australian Plant Name Index1 in a bracketed entry after the botanical name says Maiden named this de-Beuzevillei but presumably Botanical nomenclature overruled the author and the hyphen, and the capital were subsequently removed. The more widely accepted common name2 for the species has become Jounama Snow Gum. It grows on steep slopes over 1500 m (~ 5000’) in the Brindabellas and the Bogong Peaks of the ACT and NSW, above the upper limits of Alpine Ash (E. delegatensis). It is hard to imagine anyone has commercialized the harvesting and of this species. Chipperfield3 commented, “this is usually a small tree with a very short bole or a many-stemmed ”, so not really a ‘Giant’ after all. Time has been unkind to the status of this species. It is currently classified as a subspecies of Snow Gum E. pauciflora, and SA member David Kleinig4 gives its botanical name as Eucalyptus pauciflora Sieb. ex Spreng. subsp. debeuzevillei (Maiden) L. Johnson & D. Blaxell. The Snow Gum type was collected in 1823 by the Czech botanist F W Sieber during a seven-month visit to Australia, and although named in a publication it was insufficient to satisfy botanical rules until validly published by Sprengel in 1827. This wouldn’t have mattered to the Jounama Snow Gum until Laurie Johnson revised the species complex in 1973, relegating the Jounama to a subspecies. Jim’s slide of E. debeuzevillei (left) is comparable to E. regnans, Mountain Ash (right), with no soft tissue, thin rays, relatively open fibres and perhaps a tendency to oblique flares of pores. The notable difference is the typical pore diameter is about half that of E. regnans.

May/June 2020 World of Wood 11 De Beuzeville5 (1884 -1954) was born in the Southern Highlands and educated at Tumut before marrying in 1907 and working on the land. He joined the Forestry Commission in 1912 and worked in various locations around the state. His picture from a family collection6 was probably taken in northern NSW. He settled in Tumbarumba and Tumut during the 1920s. From 1930 to 1935 he collected extensively for the National Herbarium in Sydney and for Dadswell’s group at the CSIR (as CSIRO, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, was known then) Division of Forest Products in Melbourne. According to the CSIR logs, by the end of 1935 he had provided 1048 specimens for Dadswell’s group out of the entire collection of 3374 specimens, almost a third of the collection! Dadswell’s group began logging samples in December 1928 and had reached 1431 by the time de Beuzeville started in November of 1930. He sent 56 shipments, almost one a month averaging 20 samples per shipment for the next five years, which was well over half the samples received during this period. In 1936 de Beuzeville shifted to Sydney and carried out a series of senior roles including establishing the forest ecology branch of the Forestry Commission before retiring in 1948. Despite this being at the very end of his career, both Hall and Chippendale single him out as a ‘Forest Ecologist’. Indeed, Chippendale says he was “a keen collector of forest botanical material and the first to recognize Jounama Snow Gum as differing from E. pauciflora subsp. pauciflora”. When cataloguing Jim’s slide, I cross referenced it with the CSIR log books7 from 1933 to discover that it had been collected by “W A W de B” from the NSW Southern Highlands. Of course, “W A W de B” is Wilfred Alexander Watt de Beuzeville. The wood we now have was collected and despatched to Dadswell’s group by de Beuzeville himself, a decade after he had collected and introduced the species to the botanical world. Now that makes it pretty special in my book. The extract of the CSIR logs for E. de Beuzevillei samples 2433 & 2434 show handwritten notes “BH, BS, Limb, TC, bark, mus”. I think the BS refers to “botanical specimens” and “mus” refers to “Museum” meaning samples of leaves, and were provided to the Sydney Herbarium to confirm the species identity. Throughout the logs, de Beuzeville’s specimens were routinely described with these abbreviations and often the pages were over-written with comments attributed to the Government Botanist, usually confirming de Beuzeville’s identification. That makes them pretty much the same as vouchering the samples and makes them prized items for us as wood collectors.

1 Australian Plant Name Index D-J, Commonwealth of Australia 1991, Page 1225 2 Hall & Brooker, Forest Tree Leaflet 125, Forestry & Timber Bureau, 1973 3 Chippendale in Kelly, Eucalypts Volume II, Thomas Nelson Aust, 1978, Page 48 4 Brooker & Kleinig, Field Guide to Eucalypts Vol 1, Inkata, 1983, Page 92 5 Carron, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 8, MUP, 1981 6 Family photo collection, kept by great-nephew Tony Reynolds, circa 1920 7 Wood Collection Log Books, CANBD, Australian National Herbarium, 2012 12 World of Wood May/June 2020 Preliminary Notice of the 2022 Conference and AGM

Geoff Holloway (Qld Rep) #9971 QUEENSLAND IWCS AGM at Mt. Tamborine has moved from September 2021 to September 2022. Here are some images I took at Tamborine Mountain National Park on Cedar Creek when checking out the suitability of the venue. Accommodation will be available in the Cedar Creek Lodges.

Cedar Creek

Cedar Creek pool

Curtis Falls

Flooded Gum—Mt. Tamborine

Cedar Creek

Red Cedar

May/June May/June 2020 2020 World World of Wood of Wood 13 13 Shrubwoods of the World

Musk maple by Nelis Mourik #7460L A quite rare species in European and northern American nurseries. The species is exceptional due to its variable shape, not because of its wood. The botanical name of musk maple Musk maple is an erect shrub or small is Premna microphylla Maximowicz. tree up to 3 m (10 ft.) tall and just as Premna is a genus of about 200 species, wide in the crown. It is extremely consisting of trees, , subshrubs variable in leaf traits. Leaves are and some climbers, native to the Old opposite, from lanceolate to ovate and World tropics and subtropics. Some of obovate, the leaf margin entire to lobed the trees provide commercial wood, be it or sometimes serrulate, 3 – 13 cm (1⅛ – rather on a local scale only. Most species 5 in.) long and half that wide. Individual are found in Asia. In alone 46 flowers are small, in conical panicles, species are native. Premna microphylla yellow, blooming in late spring to early is native to south-central to south-eastern summer. Leaves as well as flowers China, and southern . For can be pubescent or nearly glabrous. this species, other English common are dark purple berry-like drupes, names are Japanese musk maple and maturing in late summer to early fall. Japanese neem tree. Stinky maple is also a common name used. The transliterated Musk maple wood is light brown with Japanese name is hamakusagi. The slightly darker streaks because of denser transliterated Chinese name is dou fu latewood zones. Heartwood is not chai, dou fu pointing to ‘tofu’, which is discernible. Stems will hardly exceed a vegetarian cheese or jelly, in this case 10 cm (4 in.) in diameter, although a jelly prepared from the leaves. The 18 x 15 cm (7 x 6 in.) oval sstem has names musk maple and stinky maple been reported in Japan. Growth ring are given because of the very unpleasant boundaries are distinct due to the denser Longitudinal flat-sawn surfaces in a glued- smell of the crushed leaves. Synonyms ground tissue in the very late latewood. up Premna microphylla wood specimen. The sometimes used in literature are P. The wood is semi-ring-porous with a wood is from the Kyoto Botanical Garden, japonica Miq. and P. formosana Maxim. discontinuous ring of earlywood vessels Japan. Musk maple has nothing to do with of which the tangential diameter is 50 the maple genus or family. The genus – 80 µm. Vessel diameters decrease to for anything other than firewood. The Premna is in the Lamiaceae family 10 µm near the end of the growth ring. species is widely used for bonsai. From (mint family), formerly Verbenaceae or Latewood vessels are solitary and in the leaves, a so-called green tofu (a Labiatae. radial multiples of 2 – 4. Perforation green jelly) is prepared. It is because plates are simple. Axial parenchyma is Premna leaves (generally, throughout The genus name Premna is after the scanty paratracheal and in a marginal the genus) contain much pectin. Greek ‘premnon’ = ‘tree stump’. It band. Rays are 1 – 3 (– 4) seriate. Rays Preparations from roots, stems and alludes to the short, crooked trunk of the are up to 600 – 700 µm high. Body ray leaves are used as traditional Chinese first described species (P. integrifolia cells are procumbent, with 1 row of medicine. Musk maple is a subtropical L.). The specific epithet microphylla square to upright marginal cells. Some species, it is not hardy in the temperate means ‘small-leaved’. low, uniseriate rays consist of square to regions of the world. upright cells only. Ground tissue consists of thin- to thick-walled fibers with simple to minutely bordered pits. The wood of musk maple is strong, quite hard and heavy (specific gravity 680 - 740 kg/m³ or 42.5 - 46 lbs/ft³ airdry). Grain is straight, texture is fine. Small diameter stems dry well without cutting along the pith, only with some short end cracks. End-sealing is recommended. It works well with all kinds of , provided they are sharp. It can be glued well and can be sanded to a very smooth Transverse surface of an average 52 mm (2 surface. It is of a medium durability. in.) disc of Premna microphylla The wood of this shrub is not used Lens view of Premna microphylla endgrain 14 World of Wood May/June 2020 Shrubwoods of the World

Ural false spirea by Nelis Mourik #7460L and Michael Nee #9863 A shrub with short-living shoots and a beautiful inflorescence. The white wood is of no value except for kindling. The botanical name of Ural false spirea is suckers. Leaves are compound, 10 – 40 Sorbaria sorbifolia (L.) A. Braun. Sorbaria cm (4 – 16 in.) long, composed of 13 – 25 is a genus consisting of five species of lanceolate leaflets, sharply serrated along deciduous shrubs, all natives to eastern Asia, their margins. The showy inflorescence is an and closely related to the genus Spiraea. erect, terminal, pyramidal, dense panicle of Hence false spirea is the general English tiny flowers opening in July/August, 15 – 30 common name for the Sorbaria species. cm (6 – 12 in.) long, individually 7 – 8 mm Sorbaria sorbifolia is native to temperate (¼ – 5/16 in.) in diameter. Flowers are white eastern Asia from the Ural Mountains with a yellow-orange center. Seeds ripen in eastward, including south eastern Siberia, September in a dehiscent capsule. the Far East of Russia, Manchuria, northern China, and northern Japan. It is Ural false spirea wood is off-white. cultivated and sometimes naturalized in Heartwood is present, but not discernible Europe and north-eastern North America. in the seasoned wood (not uncommon in other Rosaceae genera). Stem diameter In older literature it might be found under its near the base is up to about 25 mm (1 synonym Spiraea sorbifolia L. Other English in.), of individual shoots up to about 16 common names sometimes used are false mm (⅝ in.). The stems have a relatively spirea or just sorbaria. Transliterated Chinese wide, soft, light brown pith (3 – 5 mm or name is zhen zhu mei, literally meaning ⅛ – 3/16 in.). Growth ring boundaries are ‘pearl ’. Transliterated Japanese distinct due to a denser ground tissue zone common name is hozaki-nanakamado. near the end of the growth ring and a (less Flat sawn and quarter sawn surfaces distinct) discontinuous ring of slightly larger in a glued-up Sorbaria sorbifolia wood Sorbaria is in the Rosaceae family, subfamily specimen from North American grown earlywood vessels. In this American grown wood. Wood courtesy of the Missouri Amygdaloideae, formerly subfamily wood, vessel diameters are very small, up to Botanical Garden collections, St. Louis, Spiraeoideae. The genus name Sorbaria 20 µm in the earlywood vessel ring, down Missouri, USA. Collected by Michael Nee means ‘Sorbus-like’. The specific epithet to 10 µm in the latewood. In Russian Far 64292 in Wisconsin. sorbifolia means ‘with leaves like Sorbus’. East wood, it has been recorded to be 50 very smooth surface. Durability is low. It is Ural false spirea is an erect, 1 – 2 m (3.5 – 7 µm, down to 20 µm (Anatomy of Russian susceptible to both wood borers and fungi. ft.) high shrub, spreading freely by Woods, Vera E. Benkova and Fritz H. Schweingruber, ISBN 9783258064123). The wood of Ural false spirea is too small Perforation plates are simple. Here and there to be used. Dried shoots can be used for vessel grouping tends to be a tangential kindling. The shrub is planted for erosion arrangement. Axial parenchyma is scanty control. It can also be used as a privacy hedge paratracheal, in the earlywood only. Rays and as a background shrub in large gardens. are of two distinct sizes. Uniseriate rays are generally low and composed of square to upright cells only. Multiseriate rays are (2 –) 3 – 6 cells wide, with bodies of procumbent cells and tails of 1 – 2 rows of square to upright marginal cells. Ray height is up to little over 1 mm. Ground tissue consists of medium thick-walled fibers with distinctly bordered pits. Transverse section of a 25 x 33 mm (1 x 1¼ in.) wide stem near the base of Sorbaria The wood of Ural false spirea is medium sorbifolia. The large colony in southern hard and of a medium density (specific Wisconsin had no tall stems more than 3 gravity around 580 kg/m³ or 36 lbs/ft³ airdry). years old, but this larger diameter base Grain is generally straight. Texture is fine to of a clump was 7 years old. In one ring there is a (possibly false) partial growth extremely fine. It dries well without cutting ring boundary over one quarter of its the wood along the pith, while not showing circumference. This larger diameter base any distortion. The wood rounds are too represents the quarter sawn surface in the small to machine. Band sanding to shape specimen picture above. Probably, in more is the safest way to work on it. It works temperate climates, the stems attain greater easily, glues well and can be sanded to a Lens view of Sorbaria sorbifolia wood age and diameter. endgrain May/June 2020 World of Wood 15 Argentina — Part I: Patagonia by Réjean Drouin, photos by Claude Thiffault

Argentina was not among my planned next trips. Ecuador Argentina and Chile. Being a 4-day trip, the temperature and Peru were my preferred choices. My old friends there fluctuates very much (like the peso’s exchange from Montréal, Claude and Jeannine, suggested a joint rate...). The best day to see penguins and the Beagle Argentina trip to cover it from south to north, insisting Channel (Map 1) was the first clear day which happened to on a visit to Patagonia. Claude likes fresh weather. He be the first day after we arrived. We took a five-hour boat worked a lot in the north of Quebec during the James Bay tour on the Beagle Channel (visited by Darwin for two dam projects, mostly in winter conditions. He considered hydrographic expeditions between 1826-1836) to see local himself a northern man, attracted by the coldest Southern fauna. Argentina. I was not ‘hot’ to this suggestion; I preferred doing Argentina in two trips, this time focusing on the Across the channel, Coastal Chile offers an opportunity to warmer north. view the southern Nothofagus forest (Fig. 2). This boat tour took almost the full day including one stop at the Argentina is a large country, roughly 5,200 km (~3230 island of penguins. We enjoyed the trip in general and we miles) north to south from Bolivia to Tierra del Fuego and also enjoyed seeing the local fauna (Figs. 3-5). 1,400 km (~870 miles) west to east. Its size is nearly 30% of that of Canada or four times the size of Texas. Have The second day was overcast and rainy, and Claude and I you ever imagined covering Canada in 24 days? It would decided to make a trek in the Parque Nacional Tierra del require two days for each province and territory. To cover Fuego. We took a bus to the park entrance, paid the fees, Argentina from south to north would entail several coach and started along the suggested trail: an 8-km (~ 5 miles) rides or plane flights. hiking trail along the seashore of the Beagle Channel. The informative pamphlet said the park has two species Second, Argentina’s tree flora is not diverse. Patagonia is of southern , by the local name ‘Lenga’ and the poor in tree species, apart from Nothofagus species and evergreen ‘Guindo’ or ‘Coihue de Magallanes’, without some other smaller trees. As for the northwest, besides giving the scientific names. So, we thought there were ‘Cardones’ (giant cacti), I was expecting few tree species. only two species of southern beech in the park. After a My trips are always connected to tree flora. However, there few hundred meters we met a guide leading a couple of are more interesting destinations to me. tourists and I asked him how many species were growing here. He said there are three species, but the trail only My wife insisted plane flights (low cost) will save time. passes two of them. A third species (rare here) grows at As a compromise, I asked for more time in the northwest higher elevations. We left the group and made observations to visit the Iguazu Falls. Sylvie and my friends started of their traits to differentiate them. This time of the year planning the trip which included six domestic plane flights. (summer with 15 Celsius or ~ 59 F), we found only leaves Let’s go! on the trees; no flowers or fruits were available. We saw Patagonia covers 28% of Argentina. It extends from San two kinds of leaves: one little, round, and serrated on the Carlos de Bariloche in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the margin and another, larger and deeper green. 2 2 south. It covers 780.000 km or ~300,000 mi ; it’s the same Number 1 problem: the Nothofagus species distance as Schefferville is north of Québec) (Figure 1: Map 1). We faced 2 problems on this trip. First was the Nothofagus and 2nd was the ‘Cardones’ (the giant cacti), explained in a The Chilean border has mostly mountainous countryside later issue. Species of Nothofagus (the southern ) but also flat steppes. The Andes terminate in Tierra del are widespread on the southern hemisphere, in Australia, Fuego with summits reaching 1500 meters (~5000 feet) including Tasmania, New Zealand, New Guinea and New rising above sea level. It is like a summit of 3000 meters Caledonia, and in (Chile and Argentina). (~10,000 feet above sea level) starting at 1500 meters. Chile has 9 species, 7 of which are found in Argentina Summer is the best time to visit there as the sun goes down and Patagonia. One source lists 11 species for South around 10:30 PM and temperatures go up to 20 degrees America. Nothofagus bears likenesses to the genus Fagus Celsius (68 F). of the northern hemisphere. However, placement and We took the plane from Buenos Aires the day after circumscription of Nothofagus is controversial (see the arriving; a flight of four hours to Ushuaia (Map 1). November/December 2016 issue of WoW). What do you Ushuaia is in Tierra del Fuego Province, an archipelago expect? Botany is what botanists make of it. The genus off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, Nothofagus was first placed in the Fagaceae family. The across the Straits of Magellan. Tierra del Fuego is divided Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG), (http://www.mobot. 16 World of Wood May/June 2020 org/MOBOT/ Differentiating the species ofNothofagus is like a scramble Research/ or ‘cafouillis’ (the scene we sometimes see in front of APweb/ a hockey goal). First, Lenga is Nothofagus pumilio and welcome.html) places it in the new family Nothofagaceae, closely related to the Fagaceae and the Betulaceae. According to Aimée Camus, in a 1951 contribution (reference below), Nothofagus Fig. 4. Rock cormorants (Phalacrocorax magellanicus) would be more ancient and more evolved than Fagus. Figure 1. Map of Patagonia (license-free map from dreamstime. com and with an insert from Google Maps 2020)

Fig. 5. Patagonia sea lions (Otaria flavescens)

Fig. 2. Nothofagus forest by the Beagle Channel

Fig. 3. Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) Fig. 6. Fantastic scenes in the beech forest May/June 2020 World of Wood 17 Fig. 10. Red crowberry or diddle-dee (Empetrum rubrum, Ericaceae) Fig. 7. Beaver dams in the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego

Fig. 11. The hemiparasitic farolito chino (Misodendrum punctulatum), that grows as a mistletoe principally on Nothofagus trees. Sprays of yellow green to red, leafless, branching, knotty twigs grow out of the wood of the host.

Fig. 8. Giant woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus)

Fig. 12. Pan de indio (Cyttaria hariotii) is an edible ascomycete fungus parasitic on southern beech (Nothofagus) trees Guindo is N. betuloides. Someone told us the latter is rare in the park and the second noted species should be Fig. 9. Notro or Chilean firebush (Embothrium coccineum, Ñirre (Nothofagus antarctica). To complicate matters, Proteaceae), a beautiful tree in bloom. one Wikipedia site says the Park has not two, but four 18 World of Wood May/June 2020 Fig. 13. Beech orange, Cyttaria hariotii fungus fruiting body. By Butterfly austral - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons. Fig. 16. Examples of lenga burls Nothofagus pumilio wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6247364

Fig. 16. Réjean on a trail near Laguna Esmeralda pointing at sections of a mature lenga trunk

Fig. 14. Darwin’s golf ball fungus, or “beech orange” (Cyttaria darwinii) is a parasitic on southern beech (Nothofagus) trees. The fungus releases chemical signals that cause the tree to form a gnarled that sustains the fungus, from which it sprouts perennially in spring or summer. After shooting its spores, the beech oranges drop from the tree, while the gall remains.

Fig. 17, Beaver pond, Laguna Esmeralda Nothofagus species: Coihue or Coïgu (N. dombeyi), Lenga, Ñirre or Ñire (N. antarctica) and the Magellan’s Coihue or Guindo. Nothing makes tree identification easy! The sinuous path, the fog, the twisted trees covered with mosses, and parasitic made us feel like we were on the screen in a Peter Jackson movie (Fig. 6). The afternoon was dedicated to a loop trail along the sea- bays and some interior marshes where we found beaver dams (Fig. 7). Fig. 15. Carving made of lenga burl, Nothofagus pumilio May/June 2020 World of Wood 19 Fig. 19. Austral or emerald parakeet (Enicognathus ferrugineus)

Map 2. Insets, from S to N: Laguna Esmeralda NE of Ushuaia, El Perito glacier W of El Calafate, Cerro Fitz Roy N of El Chaltén

Fig. 18. The chimango caracara bird (Milvago chimango) Fig. 20. A huge southern beech (Nothofagus) by the trail from Chaltén to Laguna Torre 20 World of Wood May/June 2020 In 2016, Chile and Argentina started an eradication I could buy real Lenga (N. pumilio), the only locally program of beaver with the objective of 100,000 catches. accepted lumber of any Nothofagus species as the owner For economic reasons, the beaver was introduced from told us. Lenga can grow 30 meters (~ 100’) high and reach Canada, together with the American Mink. Unknown at the a trunk diameter of 1.5 meter (~ 5’) (Fig. 16). In autumn, time, the mink is a predator of local parrot and probably the foliage turns red-orange-yellow before it is shed (same muskrats. The Fuegian ecosystem is not prepared for such happens to Ñirre). On the contrary, Guindo (N. betuloides) invaders. Continuing our trek, we came to the best moment keeps its leaves all year. It grows up to 500 meters above of the day. We observed of a family of the Carpintero sea level. gigante bird, the giant woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus) (Fig. 8). Late in the afternoon, we returned The next day we went to Laguna Esmeralda, northeast to Ushuaia by bus. of Ushuaia (Map 2). Found high in the mountain range, surrounded by snow capped mountains, it is a must-see My friend, Claude, is a biologist and a good photographer. portrait of the Southern Patagonia landscape. We made a He took photos of the trail, the Nothofagus trees, and wonderful trek starting in an old Nothofagus forest, mixed the park’s flora and fauna. We compared the photos with with swamps with the presence of beaver (Fig. 17), in an internet sites using the Wi-Fi at the lodging. We managed active glacial stream. At higher elevations, the vegetation to identify Notro (Embothrium coccineum). This was easy changes to subarctic flora with a lagoon protecting a because it has unique flowers (Fig. 9). Nothofagus forest surrounded by the high mountains covered with snow. The landscape was very different from The identity of Nothofagus is not certain. However, the that in the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego located at reader can appreciate photos of some identified species. sea level. Using his zoom lens, my friend captured some We provide snapshots of other wildlife, including small astonishing birds, such as the chimango caracara bird (Fig. trees and bushes. One species is Maytenus magellanica 18.) Listen to it here: https://ebird.org/species/chicar1. (Leña dura). There were 2 Berberis species: one is B. Also, note the Austral or emerald parakeet (Fig. 19). buxifolia, locally called calafate (symbol of Patagonia). Its synonym is Berberis microphylla. The other is Berberis The next day we moved on to the northern Parque darwinii. It is known as Darwin’s barberry, calafate, Nacional Los Glaciares, over 560 km (~350 miles) north red crowberry, and diddle-dee. There is also Empetrum of Ushuaia. We spent 20 hours on a double-decker bus. We rubrum (the prickly heath) (Fig. 10). Another is Gaultheria crossed the Chilean border at San Sebastián (the shortest mucronate in the Ericaceae family. Finally, there is Drymis route). We crossed the Primera Angostura sound (in the winteri (Winter’s bark) in the Winteraceae family. Straits of Magellan) by ferry. We returned to Argentina near Punta Delgada (Fig. 1: Map 1). We stopped in Río Another intriguing species is the hemiparasitic Farolito Gallegos, the coastal city where Butch Cassidy and the chino or Misodendro, that grows as a mistletoe (Fig. 11), Sundance Kid made their last bank robbery. During this principally on Nothofagus trees. After the trip I found this trip, we were surrounded by steppes. Some had livestock and many local flowers in an online picture book here: (cattle and/or sheep), some had gas derricks, some had https://issuu.com/navetierrapa/docs/herbario_bosque_ bush land (principally ). There was no one around, no patag__nico-phone/29. village, just some wild guanacos. We arrived at El Calafate The park also has two species of ascomycete macrofungus, very late (2 AM). Cyttaria hariotii (Llao-llao or native bread, Figs. 12-13) Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (Los Glaciares National and Dihuene (Cyttaria darwinii, Fig. 14). They have a Park in Santa Cruz Province), is found on the big ice cap surprising appearance, sometimes surrounding the tree (the third largest ice cap in the world, after Antarctica and trunk of Nothofagus (Fig. 12). It appears everywhere in Greenland). It continues to advance. The national park is the tree, including the branches. The active fungus stands well known for two sections: the Perito Moreno and Cerro out by its orange colored fruiting bodies, which are edible Fitz Roy, 3405 meters, (~11,171 feet) (Map 2). (Fig. 13). Cyttaria is a parasite causing burl-like growths, which were used for carving, for example by the prisoners El Calafate is the regional hub for plane and bus arrivals, of Ushuaia (Fig. 14-15). departures, tours, and services of all kinds. The section Perito Moreno is 78 km (~ 49 mi.) from El Calafate. We As I did not satisfactorily confirm the identifications of followed the Lago Argentino lake with its greenish water Nothofagus spp. in the park, I asked for a shop fed by melting ice from several glaciers. On the other side in the city where I could possibly find someNothofagus are grasslands. Suddenly, we saw a mother ñandú bird (or wood. It was late afternoon, our last day in Ushuaia. Suri, (Rhea pennata)) with her chicks. Finally, we found, with local help, a carpenter shop. There, May/June 2020 World of Wood 21 Fig. 24. Nothofagus antarctica foliage. By Wouter Hagens - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index. php?curid=1906325

Fig. 21. Another huge southern beech (Nothofagus) by the trail Fig. 25. Simple guide to leaves of southern beech, found in the from Chaltén to Laguna Torre arboretum in El Calafate

Fig. 26. Carvings made of calafate (Berberis microphylla) are Fig. 22. Guindo (Nothofagus betuloides), herbarium bright yellow

Fig. 23. Fall coloration of lenga (N. pumilio). By Fernando Lopez- Fig. 27. Calafate (Berberis microphylla). Upper left icorner nsert: Anido - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia. Flower. By Chrislorenz9 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:// org/w/index.php?curid=15243479 commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72975161 22 World of Wood May/June 2020 (Calafate) and Embothrium coccineum. To go to Cerro Fitz Roy, our second destination, we had to go back to El Calafate to take a bus for two hours to the town of El Chaltén. This small town, very charming, was established in 1985, but gained importance after the new airport of El Calafate opened in 2000. El Chaltén is the starting point for trekking. Of the many trails one was very interesting for us. It was 9 kilometers (~5.6 miles) one way, mostly flat along a glacier stream going west to Laguna Torre. I drank straight from the little stream and filled my jug with the glacier water. The section with old Nothofagus trees is amazing. Many huge trees were photographed (Fig. 20-21). Just like the other trails, no information was posted on the flora. So, we expected to find more information in El Calafate where we stayed for two days. In El Calafate, we went to a botanical garden (arboretum) at the El Calafate Historical Interpretation Center. There, we found an herbarium with material, photos and details of the leaves of the most common Nothofagus (Fig. 22, 25). I don’t know why this material is so difficult to find. It is simply non-existent anywhere in Ushuaia or any of the national parks we visited. Some additional references can also be useful for identification, including Wikipedia (Fig. 23-24). I can suggest two references for more details on Nothofagus species. The first one is Le Genre Nothofagus: Hêtres de l’hémisphère austral by Aimée Camus, Botanique appliqué Fig. 28. The Nothofagus species relevant to Patagonia correspond to: A) N. obliqua; B) N. antarctica; C) N. pumilio; G) N. dombeyi; H) N. betuloides; K) N. d’agriculture tropicale. 1951 pp 71-84 (https:// nitida (Chile only) www.persee.fr/doc/jatba_0370-5412_1951_ The Perito Moreno Glacier is the main attraction with num_31_339_6744). Another reference is Árboles nativos a beautiful metal boardwalk leading up more than one de Argentina, Tomo 2: Patagonia by P. Demaio et al., kilometer between the glacier lake and the glacier. The 2015 (www.amazon.com/-/es/demaio/dp/9874003162). subarctic vegetation called the Bosque Andino Patagónico Or Sanz, Eduardo H.: Arboles Y Arbustos Nativos De La is on the other side. Even though the path does not allow Patagonia Andina. San Carlos de Bariloche: Ediciones de diversions, it is possible to see and touch different species. imaginaria, 2001. Print. ISBN 9879855701. Any detail is Most were common to Tierra del Fuego. Nothofagus is better than none, so I suggest carrying photos or reference represented by Lenga (N. pumilio), Ñire (N. antarctica) material during a trek. Aimée Camus’ drawing reproduced and Guindo (N. betuloides). Lenga is the most plentiful. here might help (Fig. 28). Ñire can tolerate extreme conditions, as well as wet terrain. Before closing this article, I need to add a word on It loses its leaves in winter after developing beautiful calafate. This shrub is the emblem of Patagonia. It is also autumn color. Guindo is evergreen. We asked a volunteer the namesake to the city of El Calafate. The scientific about the difference between the two. The explanation was name is Berberis microphylla G. Forst. (Berberidaceae). very limited. We didn’t find much information at the tourist I read up on el Calafate (michay, box-leaved barberry, office either. So, out of prudence, I won’t put a scientific Magellan barberry). It was first namedB. buxifolia Lam., name on any. Also, we recognized Berberis microphylla but taxonomists found that the name had been used earlier, May/June 2020 World of Wood 23 so it had to be given a new specific epithet. It thus became weathered. Darwin’s barberry is grown as an ornamental B. microphylla. Calafate is a variable species, especially and naturalized in other countries. Britain, Ireland, with respect to the shape of the leaf, and the plant has at Australia, and New Zealand are examples. times been treated as several distinct species. However, these variations are mainly due to the habitat in which the In conclusion, I would say that Southern Argentinian plant grows. The names are not consistent even within Patagonia is a must see. It is a unique and wild country, but the local population. database (http:// low in tree diversity. A tree lover, at least a non-botanist www.theplantlist.org/) gives 13 taxa of B. buxifolia and like me, needs to be prepared with knowledge before going considers them all synonymous to B. microphylla G. Forst. there if wanting to go further into Nothofagus species. Either that, or one needs to visit when trees bear diagnostic I could not find any leftover wood on the ground as I did botanical details such as flowers or fruits. It took me for ñirre. By chance I found a stand-owner in El Calafate eight days to sort out just the Patagonian species (thanks town who had the permit to use it. It was for dead material to El Calafate, town) and to know how to differentiate only. I asked for a couple of pieces (Fig. 26). El calafate some species of the genus Nothofagus. By my own fault, is an endangered species in its native habitat; that is why I was not equipped well enough with tree books. Local it cannot be harvested. This bush has a beautiful blueberry assistance and information were difficult to find, if not fruit (Fig. 27) used to make a jelly. It is sweet and tart missing. and sold everywhere. It is a very thorny species, like other steppe flora. The wood is characteristic ofBerberis , To be continued with the story of the Northwest. bright yellow (Fig. 26). Contrary to calafate wood, that of Darwin’s barberry (B. darwinii) is not yellow all over. Perhaps the specimen I found is spalted or more Official National Trees of the World by Chuck Holder 5749 HL, S

This is a second update on a survey of the official trees - more and more countries are declaring official national of the nations of the world. The original survey was done trees as time goes on. In fact, it appears that the number by the author and published in WoW in the year 2000. of countries reporting an official national tree has more An update was undertaken in 2010 and now in 2020 it than doubled in both absolute and percentage terms. seems timely for a second update. One may ask “why?” to This is a particularly encouraging trend indicating that which I would reply that, to me, it is a learning experience, more countries are recognizing the significance of trees particularly for anyone interested in trees of the world and in their national economies, environments and cultures the countries of world for that matter. and are designating “official” trees in recognition of such importance. Comparatively, the official tree count in our It is recognized that the number of countries in the world is three surveys is as follows: a moving target and one with many controversial situations regarding country status. One treatise on the subject cites Survey Year several sources and concludes the number of “countries” 2000 2010 2020 is somewhere between 194 and 239. It seems we are in Countries 200 200 203 the ballpark therefore since the world regional country With Official trees 25 59 142 approach used in this survey totaled 203 countries: % with Official Trees 13% 30% 70%

Official Trees - by Main Regions of the World I would be remiss if I did not recognize the recent efforts Region Countries Official Trees of the Australian IWCS group championed by Eugene Dimitriadis, in their revitalized efforts to have all the Africa 56 22 Australian states declare an official tree, leading to an Asia 47 46 effort to have the country to do the same. I wish them well in this effort. & 22 19 For the record, the following table presents the results of Europe 48 36 this year’s survey, listing all countries, and the official national tree, that have been designated. North America 3 3 AFRICA - 56 Countries Oceania 15 5 Algeria: terebinth or turpentine tree (Pistacia terebinthus) South America 12 11 Angola: imbondeiro tree, baobab (Adansonia digitata) Benin: no official tree TOTAL 203 142 Botswana: marula (Sclerocarya birrea ssp. caffra) Burkina Faso: no official tree Compared to the previous surveys, one trend seems clear Burundi: no official tree

24 World of Wood May/June 2020 Cameroon: no official tree : banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) Cape Verde: no official tree Indonesia: pohon beringin (Ficus benjamina) Central African Republic: no official tree Iran: Mediterranean cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) Chad: no official tree Iraq: date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) Comoros: no official tree Israel: olive (Olea europaea) Congo (Brazzaville): no official tree Japan: Japanese cherry blossom ( serrulata) Congo, Democratic Republic: no official tree Jordan: Mount Tabor (Quercus ithaburensis) Cote d’Ivoire: no official tree Kazakhstan: Asian spruce (Picea schrenkiana) Djibouti: Bankoualé palm (Livistona carinensis) Kuwait: date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) Egypt: doum palm tree (Hyphaene thebaica) Kyrgyzstan: Siberian Abies( sibirica) Equatorial Guinea: silk cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra) Laos: frangipani tree (Plumeria sp.) Eritrea: no official tree Lebanon: cedar of Lebanon ( libani) Eswatini (Swaziland): no official tree Malaysia: merbau tree, Malacca (Intsia palembanica) Ethiopia: no official tree Maldives: coconut tree (Cocos nucifera) Gabon: no official tree Mongolia: shaman tree (Axis mundi) Gambia: no official tree Myanmar: padauk (Pterocarpus macrocarpus) Ghana: no official tree Nepal: sacred fig, bodhi tree, Ficus( religiosa) Guinea: silk cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra) North Korea: Korean (Pinus koraiensis) Guinea-Bissau: no official tree Oman: olibanum, frankincense tree (Boswellia sacra) Kenya: umbrella thorn acacia (Vachellia tortilis) Pakistan: deodar or Himalayan Cedar (Cedrus deodara) Lesotho: no official tree Palestine: olive (Olea europaea) Liberia: no official tree Philippines: narra (Pterocarpus indicus) Libya: date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) Qatar: sidra (Frangula alnus) Madagascar: baobab; generic (Adansonia sp.) Saudi Arabia : date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) Malawi; Mulanje cedar (Widdringtonia whytei) Singapore: tembusu (Cyrtophyllum fragrans) Mali: no official tree South Korea: Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) Mauritania: hanza tree bush (Boscia senegalensis) Sri Lanka: ironwood, na tree (Mesua nagassarium) Mauritius: no official tree Syria: olive (Olea europaea) Mayotte (Département de): no official tree Taiwan: ( camphora) Morocco: argan tree (Argania spinosa) Tajikistan: Asiatic (Ulmus pumila ‘Pinnatoramosa’) Mozambique: no official tree Thailand: golden shower, purging cassia (Cassia fistula) Namibia: quiver tree (Aloidendron dichotomum) Turkey: Turkey oak, Austrian oak (Quercus cerris) Niger: dead rat tree, baobab (Adansonia digitata) Turkmenistan: foetid juniper (Juniperus foetidissima) Nigeria: camphor tree () United Arab Emirates: ghaf tree ( cineraria) Rwanda: no official tree Usbeckistan (Uzbekistan): no official tree São Tomé and Príncipe: no official tree Viet Nam: Buddha’s-belly bamboo (Bambusa ventricosa) Senegal: no official tree Yemen: Socotra dragon tree (Dracaena cinnabari) Seychelles: no official tree Sierra Leone: no official tree Central America and Caribbean - 22 countries Somalia: African or Herabol myrrh (Commiphora myrrha) Antigua & the Bahamas: whitewood (Bucida buceras) South Africa: real yellowwood (Podocarpus latifolius) Aruba: divi-divi; windblown tree ( coriaria) South Sudan: no official tree Bahamas: (Guaiacum officinale) Sudan: umbrella thorn acacia (Vachellia tortilis) Barbados: bearded fig (Ficus citrifolia) Tanzania: African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) Belize: Honduran () Togo: no official tree Costa Rica: guanacaste (Enterolobium cyclocarpum) Tunisia: olive (Olea europaea) Cuba: royal palm (Roystonea regia) Uganda: no official tree Curacao: divi-divi, windblown tree (Libidibia coriaria) Western Sahara: no official tree Dominica: no official tree Zambia: no official tree Dominican Republic: Cuban mahogany () Zimbabwe: no official tree El Salvador: maquilishuat (Tabebuia rosea) Grenada: ackee tree (Blighia sapida) ASIA – 48 Countries Guatemala: ceiba, kapok (Ceiba pentandra) Afghanistan: Afghan pine (Pinus eldarica) Haiti: Cuban or Florida royal palm (Roystonea regia) Armenia: no official tree Honduras: ocote, ocote chino (Pinus oocarpa) Algeria: terebinth, turpentine tree (Pistacia terebinthus) Jamaica: blue mahoe (Talipariti elatum) Azerbaijan: Persian ironwood (Parrotia persica) Nicaragua: madroño (Calycophyllum candidissimum) Bahrain: date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) Panama: Panama tree (Sterculia apetala) Bangladesh: mango (Mangifera indica) Saint Kitts and Nevis: flamboyant tree; Delonix( regia) Bhutan: Himalayan cypress (Cupressus torolusa) Saint Lucia: calabash (Crescentia cujete) Brunei: simpor (Dillenia suffruticosa) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: no official tree Cambodia: palm tree, tanot (Borassus flabellifer) Trinidad and Tobago: no official tree China: ginkgo, maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba) East Timor: (Santalum album)

May/June 2020 World of Wood 25 EUROPE - 47 countries Switzerland: European yew () Albania: olive (Olea europaea) Ukraine: Guelder-rose or kalyna (Viburnum opulus) Andorra: no official tree United Kingdom: royal oak, pedunculate oak (Q. robur) Austria: beech, generic (Fagus sp.) Belarus: European spruce (Picea abies) NORTH AMERICA 3 countries Belgium: Caesarsboom or Caesar’s tree (Taxus baccata) Canada: maple, generic (Acer sp.) Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) Mexico: Montezuma bald cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) Bulgaria: Granit oak, an English oak (Quercus robur) United States: oak, generic (Quercus sp.) Croatia: Slavonian oak (Quercus robur) Cyprus: golden oak (Quercus alnifolia) OCEANIA/AUSTRALIA - 15 countries Czech Republic: small leaf linden ( cordata) Australia: no official tree; golden wattle is official flower Denmark: European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and East Timor: no official tree pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) Fiji: black tree fern (Cyathea medullaris) Estonia: oak, generic (Quercus sp.) Kiribati: no official tree Finland: silver (Betula pendula) Marshall Islands; no official tree France: European or English yew (Taxus baccata) Micronesia: no official tree : no official tree Nauru: no official tree Germany: oak, generic (Quercus sp.) New Zealand: pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) Greece: olive (Olea europaea) Palau: Breadfruit tree (Artocarpus altilis) Holy See or Vatican: no official tree Papua New Guinea: Brass Phoenix palm (Brassiophoenix Hungary: acacia, black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) schumanni) Iceland: no official tree Samoa: papago, ulafala (Pandanus tectorius) Ireland: sessile oak (Quercus petraea) Solomon Islands: no official tree Italy: olive (Olea europaea) Tonga: no official tree Kosovo: European beech (Fagus sylvatica) Tuvalu: no official tree Latvia: linden (Tilia sp.) & European oak (Q. robur) Vanuatu: no official tree Liechtenstein: no official tree Lithuania: oak, generic (Quercus sp.) SOUTH AMERICA 12 countries Luxembourg: no official tree Argentina: ceibo (Erythrina crista-galli) and red Macedonia: Macedonian pine (Pinus peuce) quebracho ( balansae) Malta: Sandarac gum (Tetraclinis articulata) Bolivia: no official tree Moldova: no official tree Brazil: Pernambuco, brazilwood (Paubrasilia echinata) Monaco: carob (Ceratonia siliqua) Chile: Chilean pine (Araucaria araucana) Montenegro: no official tree Columbia: palm tree (Ceroxylon quindiuense) Netherlands: no official tree Ecuador: quinine tree (Cinchona pubescens) Norway: no official tree Guyana: Moriche palm (Mauritia flexuosa) and Maripa Poland: common oak, pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) palm (Attalea maripa) Portugal: cork oak (Quercus suber) Paraguay: pink ipê ( impetiginosus) Romania: pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) Peru: cinchona or quinine tree (Cinchona pubescens) Russia: Siberian fir (Abies sibirica) Suriname: tropical royal palm (Roystonea regia) and San Marino: no official tree kapok, ceiba (Ceiba pentandra) Serbia: oak (Quercus sp.) & Serbian spruce (Picea omorika) Uruguay: cockspur coral tree (Erythrina crista-galli) Slovakia: small leaf lime or linden (Tilia cordata) Venezuela: araguaney (Tabebuia chrysantha) Slovenia: linden, generic (Tilia sp.) Spain: evergreen oak (Quercus ilex) Sweden: Ornäs birch (Betula pendula ‘Dalecarlica’)

Regis-tree New members of the International Wood Collectors Society

26 World of Wood May/June 2020 Members’ Listings and Requests Members with wood specimens and books for sale

May/June 2020 World of Wood 27 Salmon Gum (Eucalyptus salmonophloia F. Muell.) The nominated IWCS State Tree Emblem for Western Australia by Ian Kealley #9748 Salmon gum (Eucalyptus salmonophloia) is a beautiful, tough and resilient tree named after the ‘salmon colour’ of the bark. It is endemic to Western Australia and has been widely planted throughout Australia and the drier parts of the world as an ornamental and in reafforestation and revegetation projects. Salmon gum occurs in 50 of WA’s 108 country local government areas. It occurs naturally from the western wheat-belt, east of Perth, through the Great Western Woodlands to the edge of the Nullarbor plain in an area that has an annual rainfall from 500 mm to 200 mm (~ 20” to 8”). Salmon gum can grow to 30 m (~ 100’) high and up to 1.5 m diameter (~ 5’). For salmon gums to grow to such large trees in a 250 mm (~ 10’) rainfall area shows just how tough and well adapted they are. It was once more widespread and the most common tree throughout the WA wheatbelt in the broad valleys and on heavier loam soils. Although a lot were cleared and subsequently impacted by salinity, it still occurs in reserves, along roads and in paddocks with many iconic old trees. The extensive uncut and regrowth salmon gum stands across the Great Western Woodlands is where it can be seen in its original woodland occurrence. The afternoon sun on the salmon gum woodlands is a sight to behold. Salmon gum has a long history of use in all areas and is culturally very important as many people, country towns and regions identify with it as do many Aboriginal groups. The Noongar people of the southwest and wheatbelt know it as ‘wurak’. The big salmon gum trees provide critical habitat for wildlife, especially the old trees with their many hollows. Salmon gum is very fire sensitive and is killed by even mild fires, but it regenerates well after fire, often with a ‘wheat field’ of seedlings. It has very small buds and fruits for such a large tree with up to 1000 seeds per gram. It is sometimes used by beekeepers as a seasonal crop and yields good quality honey.

28 World of Wood May/June 2020 The timber is superb, suitable for specialty uses and furniture manufacture. It is tough and hard, having been extensively used in the mines for a century and as the main firewood that supported the WA Goldfields mines, pump stations and power generation through the wood-line (narrow railway) firewood industry. From Kalgoorlie-Boulder the wood-line operations clear-felled 3.2 million ha (~ 7.9 million acres) of woodlands from 1900–1965, cutting up to 1200 metric tons (~ 1322 US ton) per day with an estimated 30 million metric tons (~ 33 million US tons) of timber cut. Salmon gum was the most common timber harvested supporting the development of WA. Salmon gum is now used for ongoing domestic firewood supply and in small amounts for specialty timber purposes and as craft wood. The timber properties for salmon gum are: · Air–dried density 1020–1050 kg/m³ (63.65–65.52 lb/cu ft) · Green density 1120–1170 kg/m³ (69.89–73.01 lb/cu ft) · Modulus of rupture (breaking strength) 108–117 MPa (15,560–16,965 PSI) · Modulus of elasticity 14,830–16,550 MPa (2.15–2.40 x 106 PSI)

· Hardness 15.5 kN (3,485 lbf) · Green moisture content 25–33% · Fibre saturation point 28.6% · Shrinkage. Tangential. 5.8% @12% moisture content (mc); 8.1% @ 6% mc. Radial. 4.0% @12% mc; 5.9% @ 6% mc

Salmon gum is very worthy of being the nominated IWCS State Tree Emblem for Western Australia. We just love it.

May/June 2020 World of Wood 29 30 World of Wood May/June 2020 Wood Meets

February 15 – 19, 2021 Monday thru Friday Breakfast Southeast Regional Winter Woodfest Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center near Eustis, Florida, USA REGISTRATION: Elaine Hunt [email protected] PROGRAM: Don Smith [email protected] Join us at Lake Yale. The agenda includes several other demonstrations, lectures and the ever popular saw- mill and wood sales, craft, lumber and silent auctions.

POSTPONED till 2021 Australasian IWCS Conference and Annual General Meeting Monday 26th October to Friday 31st October 2020 ADELAIDE HILLS CONVENTION CENTRE at Hahndorf S A (Only 28 Km from Adelaide City)

Preliminary Notice of the 2022 Conference and AGM Geoff Holloway (Qld Rep) #9971 IWCS AGM at Mt. Tamborine has moved from September 2021 to September 2022. See page 13

May/June 2020 World of Wood 31 International Wood Collectors Society NON PROFIT ORG 12 August Alp Ct. U.S. POSTAGE PAID St. Charles, MO 63303-5302, U.S.A. INDIANAPOLIS, IN PERMIT # 8

Wood Specimens of Darwin’s Barberry

Two glued-up specimens of Darwin’s barberry wood, mixed heartwood and sapwood (top: 50 mm (2”) long, 75 mm (3”) wide, 7 mm (0.28”) thick, bottom: 45 mm (1.77”) long, 70 mm (2.75”) wide, 7 mm (0.28”) thick, collected by Réjean Drouin and mounted on Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), from left to right: in daylight, under shortwave UV (254 nm), under longwave UV (366 nm). UV source: handheld Model UVGL-25 MINERALIGHT LAMP, Multiband UV- 254/366NM 115 VOLTS, 60 Hz 0.16 AMPS. Manufacturer : UVP, Upland, CA 91786, U.S.A. From the collection of Mihaly Czako, photos by Mihaly Czako #5220-L. Related story by Réjean starts on page 16.

Darwin’s barberry is native to Chile and Argentina and is naturalized elsewhere and can be invasive. Berberis darwinii flowering shoot. Photo by MPF, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=862254