Pink birch?

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gyrfalcon

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Dec 25, 2007
1,836
Champlain Valley, Vermont
In with a couple cords of mostly beech I got c/d/s/ were some tops of something that looks like birch-- typical birch-y bark, though with more black in the bark than white, banded horizontally. But the really weird thing I've never seen before is that inside, the wood is hot pink! Looks about the color of a watermelon slurpee or something. It doesn't burn particularly well, either.

Just out of curiosity, anybody know what this is? (I'm in Vermont.)
 
That sounds interesting! Do you have any pics you can post?
 
Unfortunately, no pix. My camera battery is dead and it'll be some days before I can get up to town and get a fresh one.

Might it be boxelder?
 
I highly doubt it would be box elder, especially with what you describe. Could it be popple?
 
I don't even know what popple is. It's certainly not a term I've ever heard used around here.

The bark doesn't look anything like mature boxelder, that's for sure, but this is just from tops, so rounds maybe three inches or so in diameter. Young bark often looks so completely different.
 
Need a picture.
 
Some folks call poplar 'popple'. I thought they were usually talking about yellow (tulip) poplar, but I think some folks use it for aspen too. Anywho, I did have some bigtooth aspen a few months back that was quite pink in some areas when split. Should have taken a couple pics. Cheers!
 
gzecc said:
Need a picture.

+1 hot pink firewood and you don't have pic's...Get Some Batteries!
 
gyrfalcon said:
I don't even know what popple is. It's certainly not a term I've ever heard used around here.

The bark doesn't look anything like mature boxelder, that's for sure, but this is just from tops, so rounds maybe three inches or so in diameter. Young bark often looks so completely different.

Some up in our area of northern new york call quaking aspen, popple.


zap
 
Bigtooth aspen bark has sideways striation like birch but is darker. There's a number of other briches- grey, etc- but I don't recall particularly pink wood.

I think that dogwood occasionally has pink wood, and there's a fruit wood that I got to make bows from that was pink. Pear maybe?
 
NH_Wood said:
Some folks call poplar 'popple'. I thought they were usually talking about yellow (tulip) poplar, but I think some folks use it for aspen too. Anywho, I did have some bigtooth aspen a few months back that was quite pink in some areas when split. Should have taken a couple pics. Cheers!

Aha. Tulip poplar we definitely have around here in our forests, so that's a real possibility. Never heard of anybody bothering to burn it, though. Not worth cutting down with woods full of hard and soft maple, beech, oak and etc.
 
Nothing wrong with tulip poplar, it's a great shoulder season wood, it splits like a dream, might be one of the easiest woods to process. However I doubt it is the tree you described , sometimes it has a yellow tint but i have never seen anything close to pink and the bark of tulip does not look anything close to birch.
Pretty sure when people talk about popple they are referring to Aspen, some people also call Aspen poplar. It may be Aspen you have, it can have bark that looks like a birch. Never saw it with pink wood though, pics would help.
 
gyrfalcon said:
I don't even know what popple is. It's certainly not a term I've ever heard used around here.

The bark doesn't look anything like mature boxelder, that's for sure, but this is just from tops, so rounds maybe three inches or so in diameter. Young bark often looks so completely different.

Aspen
 
Ive seen pink cedar. Sure its not cedar?
 
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