Trees common in Arizona (AZ) and available

[Dave MacArthur]

Hi all. I've wanted to make a thread on local trees and info for a while. I made a new "Group" under the community tab, up top there where I never noticed it until this week, for "AZ Woodworkers". I tried to post this thread there, but software is rejecting me saying the post is 4 times longer than allowed doh!

Thought I'd post it here then post a link to this in the AZ group, this seemed the best way to do it.

By the way, if you're an Arizona Woodworker and would like to join the group (don't know why, but might lead to some fun weekend visits), click the community tab up above and join up

Mesquite:
Mesquite, Black
Mesquite, Chilean

East Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia Sissou). This sissou tree is planted all over Phoenix, and is recommended by the local nurseries as a fast growing nice tree. Turns out it is an actual rosewood (dalbergia group). Very fast growing, I have two that were planted in 2004 and now are 25' high with 7" trunks. Great shade tree for AZ.

"South American Rosewood". (Tipuana Tipu) Not a real rosewood (not dalbergia family), but nice looking tree. This is the one of the most recommended tree for Phoenix per my experience at local nurseries (sissou was #1). In Apr/May it drops all it's leaves and a TON of leaflet sticks, but it comes back strong in late may. Right now mine has yellow flowers all over it and lush green leaves.

Palo Verde-- these things are EVERYWHERE, right now 24 May they are completely covered with yellow flowers. I don't know anything about use of it's wood for flatwork or turning, if anyone has info or links, post away! Probably the most common tree I see planted in yards.

Acacia, willow: Tall fast growing tree, I see them break off quite often, as if they are fragile. Fastest growing tree I've seen in Phoenix, you get 30' high in just a few years.

Gum/Eucalyptus: These are the biggest trees I see in Phoenix. They are truly giants, 80-100 feet tall, with trunks 4-5 feet across at the base. There are quite a few planted along roads in the West Valley. I keep waiting for one to fall down as incentive to buy a chainsaw. I haven't seen anything made from these, and don't know their specific species, but definitely a eucalyptus from the leaves/smell/peeling bark.

Olive: You see these in older neighborhoods, Sun Cities area. Now they are mostly outlawed by newer HOAs due to huge pollen counts and litter.

Ash, Shemla: (also called Arizona Ash) This is a common tree in Glendale and Peoria, grows 50-60 feet, trunks 12", and nice straight trunks until it all branches out.

Elm, Chinese: This is another of the "most popular" recommendations by local nurseries. Surprise has these planted all over as street trees. Have never seen anything made from them.

Orange: These are everywhere in Phoenix, but I never see anything specifically made from them. Which is a shame, as there are dying groves all over the west valley just standing there drying out and rotting.

Grapefruit: Same as above, but much larger tree! 12-16" trunks, seems like a real resource. Used to be groves of these alllll over, now they are standing half dead. I saw a 160 acre grapefruit ranch get plowed under a few years ago, trees just smashed up by bulldozers making room for houses. Broke my heart. Never built the houses either as the market crashed, but there is a massive pile of dead/rotting trees... Maybe it's just perfectly spalted now in the dry heat?

If you live in AZ, or have any info on use of these woods or links, post away!
Thanks,
Dave

[John Downey]

I worked for a while in a shop that tried to use native woods... trouble is the trees just don't get big enough

I think part of the reason that urban lumber is scarce in the southwest is that large trees are valued for shade, so they usally only get cut once they're dead or in the case of Eucalyptus, once they start dropping branches through your roof

But here's what I know. Most of the useful mesquite comes from Mexico and Texas where they get bigger. If you luck into a river bottom tree from one of the rivers that runs most of the time, then they get big enough to use for lumber.

Palo Verde is nasty wood, don't bother. Soft, punky, pale and boring, not especially stable.

Cottonwood isn't on your list, but its one of the few other than Ponderosa Pine that gets big enough for lumber. They stand the heat ok with lots of water, you tend to see them above 3000', but only in drainages. Related to Aspen, not quite as pretty wood. Not especially stable.

Eucalyptus and Tamarisk also get big. Tamarisk (salt cedar) might make ok secondary wood. Eucalyptus is hard to dry from what I recall, but if there were more guys with saw mills, I bet you'd see it around as urban lumber.

Arizona Ash and Walnut are un-common, make great shade trees when you find them. Never seen either turned into lumber. Walnut can't stand the heat well, though I know a guy in Tucson with a couple that get tons of water and have thus survived 20+ years. Ash does better in the heat, but also needs water - sounds like its more common in the Phoenix area.

[Will Blick]

Dave, great post.....

Does the East Indian Rosewood look like this? Is it sold locally for good prices?

[Dave MacArthur]

Will, here's the links to the Sissoo that I have. I don't actually know of anyone selling the wood commercially, AZ Hardwoods might but they don't list it. It's just a tree that is all over phoenix now, and I guess my un-said agenda is that I want to "harvest" local urban trees that I can find, for both lumber and turning. So I'm interested in this one, as it's a real rosewood and looks great.

http://moonvalleynursery3.reachlocal...ers&Itemid=483
Link to a big local nursery showing their thoughts on the tree, it REALLY does grow fast! Mine went from 5' high to 25' in 5 years.

The Global Invasive Species DataBase has a lot to say about it and mentions it's use for intruments many times:
http://www.issg.org/database/species...ts=sss&lang=EN


"Uses
The wood is suitable for house construction, e.g. for door and window shutters and frames, flooring and panelling, and also for cabinet making, vehicle bodies, boat building, handles, implements such as shoe lasts, turnery, carving, veneer and plywood. It is excellent for high-class bentwood furniture, walking-sticks, umbrella handles and other bentwood articles. It is highly valued as firewood and for charcoal production. Pulp from the wood is suitable for papermaking.
Dalbergia sissoo is used as a shade tree in agroforestry systems in India and Pakistan, for afforestation of eroded soils, and as a soil improver that fixes nitrogen and provides mulch. It is also planted as a windbreak and shelterbelt, and as an ornamental and roadside tree. The foliage and young pods are useful as fodder, although it has been reported that fresh leaves may cause digestive disorders in livestock during the dry season. A non-drying oil which is suitable as a lubricant for heavy machinery can be obtained from the heartwood.
Powdered wood, leaves and seed oil are used in traditional medicine in India, especially to treat skin diseases. In tropical Africa, leaves are reportedly used as a stimulant and to treat gonorrhoea and wounds.
Production and international trade
In India Dalbergia sissoo timber is valuable, with an average price about as high as that of teak. Sliced plywood is exported.
Properties
Good-quality Dalbergia sissoo wood resembles that of Dalbergia latifolia Roxb. and may also be called ‘Indian rosewood’. However, especially plantation wood of Dalbergia sissoo is often of a lower quality and less decorative. The heartwood is golden brown to dark brown, often with deep brown streaks, and distinctly demarcated from the whitish to pale brown sapwood. The grain is straight, sometimes interlocked, texture moderately coarse. The wood density is 750–800 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content. Air drying should be done carefully and slowly because the wood easily splits at the ends during drying. Boards of 2.5 cm thick take 12–15 days to kiln dry from green to 12% moisture content. The rates of shrinkage from green to oven dry are 2.7–3.4% radial and 4.9–5.6% tangential. Once dry, the wood is very stable in service.
The wood is hard, strong and elastic. At 12% moisture content, the modulus of rupture is 91–104 N/mm², modulus of elasticity 9300–11,500 N/mm² and compression parallel to grain 51–60 N/mm².
The wood is fairly easy to saw and work. It can be planed to a smooth surface and takes an excellent polish. Turning, screwing, polishing and gluing give good results, and the wood can be peeled or sliced to make decorative veneer and plywood. The heartwood is durable, but the sapwood is liable to damage by insects and fungi. The energy value of the wood is about 21,800 kJ/kg."
Here's a fife made out of Sissoo

[Dave MacArthur]

Arizona Tree Identification for Woodturning:
http://www.distinctiveturnings.com/w...or+woodturning

OK, this webpage is EXACTLY what I intended for this thread, but with about 1000 hours more work! Seems to have every tree I mentioned up above, just some great links and work there!

After browsing this domain area for an hour, I just clicked around and found the site is made by our own Mike Vickery, an SMC member here whose posts I've seen often! Small world, great work!

[Mike Vickery]

Glad you like the site, it gets a lot of traffic but after I origianlly built it no one has added any additional content. I had some problems with people editing the wiki to add links to commercial web pages so I just found it easier to shut down the user registration (since no one was using it).

JasonClark2 who is also a sawmill creek member, and I believe the current VP of the AZ woodturners, helped create the site with me and is very knowledgeable about many of the local woods

[Will Blick]

I am quite surprised that Rosewood is not grown and sold ... at least locally?

Gorgeous wood, and it grows so fast...any reasons why?

[Dave MacArthur]

Probably because Sissoo has just been making inroads here in the last 10 years, being pushed by local nurseries. Back in the 90's when I went to the nurseries, they were all pushing Chinese Elm and Shemla or Arizona Ash.

Now Tipuana Tipu ("S. American Rosewood" but not a true dalbergia/rosewood) and Dalbergia Sissoo (true rosewood, Indian Rosewood) are super popular with the nurseries.

How many folks actually ever "grow and harvest" wood? Not many! People usually somehow acquire land with trees already on it and decide to harvest some of them. My impression is the average guy's ability to plan for 30 years down the road... is non-existent. And all the croplands, orange groves, grapefruit groves were just plowed under out here in Phoenix in around 2000-2005, thousands of trees just plowed into great rotting piles. So it would be pretty hard to get yourself worked up to plant a 10 year out crop minimum, when the land you planted it on was selling for 40 years worth of harvests!

On the OTHER hand... I'm buying a chainsaw and scouring the neighborhoods after every big storm, I may end up as the Indian Rosewood turning-blank broker!