Some interesting things about wood....

The oldest workable wood/lumber on earth is Ancient Kauri {Agathis australis}. The trees from ancient forests on North Island, New Zealand have been buried under peat moss since the last ice age. They are well preserved and are now being dug up from the tundra. They have been radio carbon dated to approximately 30,000 - 50,000 years old. Of course, 50,000 years is the ultimate limit of radio carbon dating so it is quite possible that these trees could be older! It is estimated that the trees were growing approximately 12 - 20 centuries before they were buried by the ice. Some of the trees have a circumference of approximately 40 feet and heights of almost 200 feet. The Ancient Kauri trees are native to New Zealand and are not found anywhere else in the world. The wood/lumber from these trees can be purchased from, Ancientwood, LTD. Each piece of Ancient Kauri wood/lumber purchased, comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.

Balsa {Ochroma pyramidale} is the lightest and softest commercially sold wood in the world. It's average specific gravity averages .16. Note: There are 4 other woods that are lighter, but none of them are suitable for any purpose. They are extremely weak and are not actually anything like wood as far as looks, feel and texture.

The tree with the world's greatest recorded tree circumference {girth} is the Santa Maria del Tule, an Montezuma Cypress {Taxodium mucronatum}, in Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico. The town is named after the tree. Because the trunk of the tree is not circular in shape but in reality has a distorted and irregular shape, you can't multiply the diameter by 3.14159 {pi} and come up with its true approximate circumference {girth} which is in excess of 160 feet. It is approximately 141 feet tall and over 2000 years old. It was thought that the trunks of the tree were several different individual trees that had merged together. A test of DNA samples taken from the trunks of the tree in 1996 using the technique Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA indicated that the trunks came from a single tree.

At one time, in the late 18th century the world's greatest recorded tree circumference {girth} was a European Chestnut {Castanea sativa) known as the Tree Of The Hundred Horses, located on Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy. At that time it had a circumference {girth} of almost 190 feet. Since then, it has separated into three parts {trees}.

The blackest wood in the world is Ebony {Diospyros crassiflora}. The whitest wood is Holly (Ipex Opaca). For the whitest wood, the best time to cut down Holly trees is in the winter when the sap is lower, and then mill and kiln dry it before summer.

Now there is something you can discuss over dinner with your partner!