Wood I'd please is this poplar ?

[woodhog73]

Hello
First off I'm sorry no picture. My camera is broken.

I normally burn oak 100% of the time but have a bunch of logs that came my way but no one knows the type. I'm splitting them and they look like a softer wood. The cut to length logs are already over a year dry and they split like butter with a mail.

The wood is easy splitting , very stringy, very light in color white, very light weight, with red steaks inside that go with the grain.

Any idea ? Sorry I know I need a picture so don't throw me under the bus too badly. Appreciate any insight.

It's a soft wood just don't know what.

 

[DougA]

None of my poplar has red streaks but Box Elder does. Not to say that some poplar might have red, just not in mine.

 

[iamlucky13]

A few rounds of what I'm pretty sure was black poplar I got from my neighbor were nearly white with a greenish tone towards the outside and more brownish-red in the heartwood. Also very stringy. The bark was thick, deeply furrowed, and tended to fall off in large pieces when I split the rounds.

They were shockingly easy to split, despite being heavy (green). It dried out quickly.

 

[barmstrong2]

Does the fresh split have a sweet sort of smell to it? Poplar is also very wet on a fresh split.

 

[woodhog73]

None of my poplar has red streaks but Box Elder does. Not to say that some poplar might have red, just not in mine.

I looked up pictures of box elder split on google and sure enough it looks exactly like what I've got. So I'm pretty sure it's box elder .

I know nothing about box elder. The logs I have are only about 10 inches around at most so either this was a young tree or else elders don't get very large in diameter.

I'm guessing I have a couple cords worth of the stuff. Is it any good to burn ? It's over a year old already but looks fresh to me it doesn't look dry even in the slightest.

 

[LocustPocust]

Sounds like boxelder, but boxelder isn't stringy normally. The more I read this forum the more I realize that the same wood species have slightly different characteristics in different regions of the country.

Box elder is a soft maple. It makes so so firewood but it must be dry. Fortunately it dries pretty fast when CSS and I think you'll find that it will burn well with a good wood like oak.

 

[Stinkpickle]

I agree. That sounds exactly like the box elder I've had. It will really get that oak going next season.