Thread: Coloured Heartwoods & wood stains - Fugally-induced

Thanks for the post an interesting read

Some other sites you may be interested in http://www.northernspalting.com/ There was a woman lecturing around US on spalting that was amazing, but I seem to have lost the link to it, maybe someone else here can find it

I also was fascinated by your thoughts on Blackbean in the other thread (https://www.woodworkforums.com/f14/mystery-timber-nice-dark-heart-195161). It would help explain the wombat and deer Blackbean slabs I cut from a very old tree

BB15.JPG BB16.JPG

Nice reference to follow Euge, thanks.

The deer and wombat examples portray the many battle line between the fungi and the tree. Each 'battle' is fought (give or take) at the edge of the deadwood, just inside the active cambium.

I am trained to recognise these battle lines as successive CODIT zones. CODIT referring to the 4 processes of the Compartmentalization Of Decay In Trees. Thats the tree trying to box the fungal attack in on four fronts. Outer growth rings, inner growth rings, above and below and laterally via medullary rays. I have probably bastardized the science this but this is the general idea. Put this all together for human eyes and you have spalting lines, or the irregular discoloured heartwood that we frequently see in members posts. I'm relatively new on this site but I reckon most of the discolouration I see in posts can be attributed to CODIT reaction by the tree.

Whatever the science behind it I still like to consider it is simply as the unique feature in each piece of timber.

The fungal activity only becomes a concern when structural properties are changed, not just the colour patterns. Discoloration usually comes from chemicals the tree inserts to cells at the battle zone. It impregnates the defense cells with lignin etc to make it hard or impossible for the fungus to cross. Trying to box it in on all sides. The fungus has more luck defeating the tree vertically, a bit of luck radially but has the toughest task getting outward progress.

In a way this topic could have been left sleeping for many more years. The colorful feature of heartwood pattern always being fascinating for so many with an interest in timber. Every new picture posted here is different and thus exciting in some way.

RM

You can get spalting in live wood, it doesn't have to be deadwood. The Leopard Tree (Brazilian Ironwood) and Flame Box Elder are a good examples.

The Blackbean above was certainly alive and well when milled. The light and dark timbers, I had previously thought were the heartwood/sapwood are definitely different, the dark wood being harder and the lighter stuff rots rapidly.

I have seen in mango a brown stain around damage to the tree, things like a nail driven in, I milled a living mango that was under some sort of fungal attack, the fruiting parts would pop up at the base of the tree, the whole side of the tree was chocolate brown.
Sounds like the same sort of thing as described.



Pete

When some trees die, the attack by borers and fungus can be rapid and the wood can be destroyed rapidly. We are in this post talking mostly about fungi attacking and effecting the wood of living trees.

“Dead wood” does NOT have to mean the wood of a dead tree. The wood cells under the cambium layer (just under the bark) is essentially all dead (ie not growing, no multiplying cells). The sapwood serves an active purpose in a living tree of course. But, the "dead" heartwood under the sapwood also serves a purpose for a living tree. It provides strength and place for metabolic waste products (of growth or of attack eg by fungus) to be stored, where they can also provide further resistance to decay, reduce termite attack etc, Here they often confer darker colours to the woods compared with sapwood,

Tree genera seem to behave differently / uniquely to heartwood formation it seems to me.