There are thousands of tree species in the world and each has their own commercial or medical uses with few exceptions.
The American elm was once extremely common. This majestic tree has been decimated by the accidental introduction of the Dutch elm Disease in the 1930s. Many streets bore their name but today the trees are largely gone but the names remain. A very hard and stringy wood, it has been used for making barrels, fence posts, furniture and boats.
The white birch, state tree of New Hampshire, is too soft to be used for most things, but it is useful for making toothpicks and clothes pins.
Osage orange is a knobby chunky tree, which grows a strange lumpy fruit bearing the citrussy aroma, which give it its name. A member of the mulberry family, its wood is used for hunting bows, as it is strong and resilient.
The white oak is used by companies like Steinway to make pianos because of its hardness. The sitka spruce is used to make piano soundboards.
The black locust is an almost indestructible tree, seemingly impervious to insect pest, disease, and environmental toxins. They grow quickly and are a blue green color, which makes them popular with homeowners for yards. They also bear an incredibly beautiful and fragrant blossom in May. It is sweeter than even honeysuckle. The wood is used for fence posts and railroad ties. It doesn't need chemical pressurizing to preserve its life, as it will serve its purpose for the better part of a century without giving way to rot. The red cedar is almost as rot-resistant as the locust. I once pulled out a cedar post which the landowner said her father had placed into the ground 75 years earlier. Even after all that time its surface was just barely punky while its heart was still untouched.
The tulip tree (also known as tulip poplar) can grow to huge proportions. I once measured a giant one in a nearby township, which I was sure, was a state record. Its height was in excess of 140 feet and its girth was over twenty feet. I was shocked to learn that there was another one in a nearby town that was even larger than that one. Being huge in proportion and straight of grain, it would be a greatly valuable timber tree if not for its softwood. But not to worry, it is still useful for things like furniture, boxes, and toy making.
The California redwood grows to even greater proportions than the tulip to the extent that if the biggest specimen of both species stood next to each other, the tulip would be dwarfed. In fact, so large is the redwood, that its lowest branches are larger in circumference than the largest tree east of the Mississippi. The redwood is best known for it rot resistance and has been widely used for outdoor construction and furniture for generations. It has gotten quite hard to come by commercially which has caused it to be replaced by cedar especially in eastern markets.
The pines are a wide-ranging and common family. The white pine is sought after for its fine grain and light color for furniture. The red pine is used for making telephone poles because it grows so straight and tall. Southern pine has become a favored timber for lumber and has been the subject of much research for tree farming and the genetically engineered "super tree" for mass production tree farming. The pitch pine grows in rocky dry terrain and is consequently very stubby and irregularly shaped. This makes it worthless as a lumber tree. However, it is widely used to make turpentine and creosote (when that was legal to be used).
Eastern and western hemlocks were always favored as a wood pulp and lumber species, being that they were common, straight, and large. But the accidental introduction of the woolly adelgid has decimated the eastern species' numbers.
The cottonwood is also a huge tree in dimensions. The regionally famous "Balmville Tree" is one of these and stands outside Newburgh, N.Y. Its girth is in excess of 25 feet, but it is in an advanced state of heart rot. It has been adopted by its village and they have gone to great care and expense to preserve it as long as possible. They have even rerouted the road adjacent to it so it will pose less danger of falling branches to traffic. They have also installed a steel framework to brace it up, but its days are numbered no matter what they try to do. Cottonwoods have been popularly used as windbreaks in the Great Plains states.
Chestnut also has been decimated by disease in the last century. It has suffered even more than has the American elm. A century ago it was the dominant species in eastern forests, with some specimens growing to tremendous proportions. Its wood is a lovely honey-color and has always been the favorite for veneer.
The maple is one of our most familiar and pretty trees. They are most famous for providing us with maple syrup. The sugar content varies greatly from species to species. Sugar maples and Norway maples contain the most sugar that still requires 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. The red maple is much less and thus needs about 50 or more gallons to make one gallon of syrup. Others require up to 75 gallons to one. Maple is also a pretty light-colored wood, which is used for furniture, cabinetry, and even flooring.
Another greatly overlooked tree is the black tupelo for its usefulness. Although not a commercially valuable timber, it is best known for its sweetly fragrant blossom that produces the sweetest honey known. So famous is it that Van Morrison once wrote a song named "Tupelo Honey" on an album of the same name.
The common rosebush or briar was well-known and widely used for making ornamental handles (rosewood) and smoking pipes. During WWII we experienced a shortage of this wood as the best examples of it came from Europe. But we resourceful Yankees found a substitute, which was the dogwood which also has a reddish wood that is also hard.
There are many, many other species that have gone unmentioned and perhaps I will be inspired to write a sequel. But no matter what species one thinks of, there is someone who has found a use for it.
Copyright © AJS 2001