• Introduction
  • Softwoods
    • Eastern Red Cedar
    • Eastern White Pine
    • Bald Cypress
    • Eastern Hemlock
    • Spruce
  • Hardwoods
    • Ring Porous Hardwoods
      • Chestnut
      • Elm
      • Fox Grape
      • Hickory
      • Hackberry
      • Black Locust
      • The Oaks
      • American Ash
      • Hercules Club
      • Mulberry
      • Paw Paw
      • Redbud
      • Sassafras
      • Sumacs
      • Trumpet Vine
    • Diffuse Porous Hardwoods
      • American Beech
      • Cherry
      • Cottonwood
      • Holly
      • Maple
      • Red Gum
      • Tulip Poplar
      • Black Willow
      • Sycamore
      • Birch
    • Semi-ring Porous Hardwoods
      • Black Walnut
      • Common Persimmon
  • Key to Softwoods
  • Key to Hardwoods
  • JPPM Home


Wood and Charcoal
Identification

Introduction

Creating a Southern  Maryland Type Collection

Wood and Charcoal Anatomy Basics

Key to Softwoods

Key to Hardwoods

Softwoods

Eastern Red Cedar

Eastern White Pine

Bald Cypress

Eastern Hemlock

Spruce

Hardwoods -
Ring Porous Hardwoods

Chestnut

Elm

Fox Grape

Hickory

Hackberry

Black Locust

The Oaks

American Ash

Hercules Club

Mulberry

Pawpaw

Redbud

Sassafras

Sumacs

Trumpet Vine


Diffuse Porous Hardwoods

American Beech

Cherry

Cottonwood

Holly

Maple

Red Gum

Tulip Poplar

Black Willow

Sycamore

Birch


Semi-ring Porous Hardwoods

Black Walnut

Common Persimmon

    Wood & Charcoal Identification in Southern Maryland
    By Harry Alden

Black Walnut

Black Walnut (Juglans nigra /Juglandaceae). Black walnut is native to the eastern United States, from southern Minnesota east to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York; south to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama; west to Texas; and north through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Black walnut trees reach heights of 120 ft (37 m), with a diameter of over 3 ft (1 m). Juglans nigra sapwood is light tan, with the heartwood being a dark, chocolate brown, sometimes having a purplish cast. Juglans nigra is hard, heavy, hard and stiff (high shock resistance). The wood has a straight grain, is easily worked, finishes well and holds paint and stain. It is a most durable wood, even under conditions favorable to decay (moist conditions). It is used for cabinets, fixtures, furniture, gunstocks, interior paneling, novelties and veneer.

http://ufei.calpoly.edu/urbanwood/woodproperties.lasso#content.

Characteristics found in the American Black Walnut (Juglans nigra):

  • Semi-Ring Porous
  • Reticulate parenchyma
  • Tyloses & deposits
  • Simple perforations
  • I/V pits large (13 - 50µ)
  • Rays 1-8 seriate & homocellular to heterocellular
  • Ray cells round as viewed on the tangential surface
  • Crystals in Axial Parenchyma (chains of 1-5)
  • “Gashes” in Latewood Vessels

WOOD SLIDES
Click on each image to view a larger image.

Cross-section of American
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
showing growth ring boundary
and reticulate parenchyma
in the latewood.
Radial section of American
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
showing a chain of crystals.
Radial section of American
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
showing “gashes” in a
latewood vessel.
Radial section of American
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
showing a close-up of “gashes”
in a latewood vessel.
Radial section of American
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
showing inter-vessel pits.
Tangential section of American
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
showing circular ray cells.

CHARCOAL SLIDES

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Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab
Updated: 4/30/17

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