Thread: Timber ID help

maple

The seed looks like it's one of those that spins as it falls, used to call them helicopter seeds, there was a tree at my primary school.....

Pete

Thanks Ben. Yes a google of maple tells me there are maples with three lobed leaves, so maple it is.

Pete, thats exactly how the seeds fall and then quickly take root.

Cheers
John

Originally Posted by bench1holio

maple

More specifically; US Rock Maple

Definitely Acer sp., but pretty hard to identify to species by a single leaf! The one you show is not typical of A. saccharum (aka Rock & Sugar Maple) leaves which are usually broader, with less deeply cut lobes & more prominent edge indentations. It looks a little more like European maple (A. pseudoplatanus) or one of the 'soft' maples, but I wouldn't go to court on a single leaf!

In my (limited) experience, rock maple is also less likely to have fiddleback, though it's the one which has the birdseye figure.......

My 2c,
Cheers,

I've come across a fair bit of fiddleback Rock Maple, but I have no idea when it comes to leaves; I was just going by the grain and colour

Thanks guys. More leaves in this shot.
Picko

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

I've come across a fair bit of fiddleback Rock Maple, but I have no idea when it comes to leaves; I was just going by the grain and colour

Elan - there are a lot of different Maple species. The woods tend to be similar, but there is still quite a range. Commercially, they get lumped into 'soft' & 'hard' categories. Most maples have trilobed leaves, but there are exceptions (A. nigundo, or Manitoba Maple, for e.g.). To me, those leaves don't look like A. saccharum leaves, which should be broader & not as deeply indented. The reason I'm moderately sure is I lived for quite a while in Canada, & we had 3 big sugar maples in the front yard (kids & I even made some syrup a few times ). There were also plenty of Silver & Red & Manitoba maples around, too, & these leaves don't match any of those, either. I'd still plump for A. pseudoplatanus, but could easily be dead wrong.

Picko - It is definitely a Maple (Acer spp.) of some kind, so if you are happy with it being identified to genus, well & good, but if you want to identify it to species & find out where the tree originally hails from, you'll have to seek some help from your state herbarium, unless someone else can recognise it with confidence...

Cheers,

Thanks Ian
I'm happy enough to have it narrowed down to genus. I thought it may have been a Maple but was unsure. I just wish I had got more of it when I had the chance - it's great stuff to turn and has some nice figure as well.

Thanks again

Picko

Originally Posted by Picko

..... I just wish I had got more of it when I had the chance - it's great stuff to turn and has some nice figure as well.

How many times I've said that, myself!

One day I came across a couple of city workers chopping down & hacking up a Manitoba Maple that was covered in burls. I'm not a big turner of bowls & the like, but thought I would like to try some. The blokes cutting the tree down told me it was rubbish, & no good even as firewood, but were more than happy to give me some, so off I went with a boot full.

The burls turnded out to be magnificent things - they are very tight & hang together well, and take a decent finish. The only down side is the stuff stinks abominably when worked.. I wish I'd got the whole tree!

In fact, only yesterday, I was using some of my last bit of it as the inner frame for a marble mosaic LOML just brought home from Italy. Around that is some fiddleback Silver Maple (a very white wood) & an outer frame of Walnut. Came up quite well, & the boss is happy with it, it seems.

Cheers,

-

Nice work Ian. No wonder the boss was happy with that. Great combination of colours and textures.

Picko

gday Picho,
ye It's a Maple, have one growing in my front yard.