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The Hardness (N) chart below shows the relative hardness for numerous wood species. Hardness is typically rated using the Janka Hardness Test. This test measures the force needed to embed a .444 inch steel ball to half it's diameter in a piece of wood. The higher the resulting number the harder the wood. Although this is one of the best methods to measure the ability of wood species to withstand indentations, it should be used as a general guide when comparing various species of wood. Click to enlarge Graphs Specific Gravity @12% M.C. Hardness Average Weight @12% M.C. The Wollemi Pine is the most recently discovered tree specie. It was discovered in August 1994, in Wollemi National Park, Australia. The total count of the mature trees is only around 40. The lightest and softest wood in the world is Balsa. Its specific gravity averages 0.16. The heaviest and the hardest wood in the world is Snakewood. Its specific gravity averages 1.30. Not all species of wood will float in water. In order to sink in water the specific gravity of the wood, has to be 1.00 or more. The whitest wood in the world is Holly. The blackest wood in the world is Gabon Ebony. The name Ironwood is actually a Slang term given to the hardest wood of an area. There are over 80 species of wood in the world referred to, or having the word, Ironwood in them. The only species of wood that can be used for holding liquids (other than acids) is White Oak. This is because the pores are filled with tyloses. This substance does not allow liquids to penetrate it. Up until a few years ago, the world’s oldest living tree, a Bristlecone Pine, named the Methuselah was in California. It is approximately 4,600 years old. The Fortingall Yew Tree in Glen Lyon, Perthahlre, Scotland, might be as much as 9000 years old. The usual way of calculating a trees age by counting the annual rings in the trunk or by carbon dating, are not accurate when it comes to Yews because a Yews trunk tends to hollow with age, while it continues to grow by rooting its branches and wrapping them around itself. There is even documentation of the formation of aerial roots growing inside the hollow trunk. Another reason is, Yews have been known to stop growing for long periods of time (documented 325 years) thus having no growth rings for that period. The trees with the largest leaves are Teak. The leaves can be 10 inches - 20 inches long and 7 inches - 14 inches wide. The world’s tallest standing tree, a Redwood, is in Humboldt State Redwood Park California. It is 368 feet (almost 37 stories) tall. The world’s largest diameter tree, a Redwood is in California. It is over 90 feet in diameter. Its root system is spread out for more than an acre. The world’s slowest growing tree is a White Cedar located in Canada. After 155 years, it grew to a height of 4 inches and weighed only 6/10th of an ounce. The tree can be found on a cliffside in the Canadian Great Lakes area. The world’s fastest growing tree is the Empress tree. This tree can grow up to 20 feet the first year and some have been documented growing 12 inches in 21 days! The tree with the world’s large root system is the great Banyan tree in the Indian Botanical Garden, Calcutta, India. It covers an area of 3 acres. It has 1,775 supporting roots and dates back to 1787. The world’s largest living tree, and this is because of its volume is the General Sherman Giant Sequoia, located in Sequoia National Park, in California. It weighs a little over 2.7 million pounds. Its largest branch is 6 foot 9-1/2 inches in diameter. The town of Flagstaff Arizona was named when on July 4th, 1876; lumberjacks stripped the limbs from the tallest Ponderosa Pine and then flew the American flag from it. The Copaiba Langsdorfii, a tree that grows in the Amazon, has sap that is so much like diesel fuel, that it can be used as fuel for diesel engines. If you burn Ceylon Satinwood the fumes will put humans to sleep and kill canaries. A Balsa tree will start rotting after only 7 years, if not cut. For every 10,000 acorns that an Oak tree produce5, only one will become a tree! More than 23,000 different species of trees can be found on Earth. Since the early 1940’s, the United States has been planting more trees than it harvests and today, has far more trees than in the 1920’s. The wood species that has the most offensive odor (like rotten cabbage) after it is worked in any way, is Essia. Some African Baobab trees can store more than 25,000 gallons of water in their trunks. With age some have become hollow and have been used as homes. One was even used as a bus stop and could shelter up to 30 people. Empress trees produce 3 to 4 times more oxygen than any other known tree. Cork trees are stripped of their bark every 10 years or so and will continue to grow for 150 years or more. The world’s sweetest tree is the Serendipity Berry. It’s native to West Africa, and is 3000 times sweeter than sucrose. Rubber trees on the average yield about 4-5 pounds of rubber per year. The softest American wood is the Corkbark. Its specific gravity averages 0.28. It is native to Arizona and New Mexico. The hardest American wood is Black Ironwood. Its specific gravity averages 1.04. It is native to southern Florida. The world’s shortest specie of tree is the Weeping Mulberry. Their height rarely exceeds 4 feet. There are 21 names of woods mentioned in the Bible. The Longleaf Pine, native to the southern part of the United States, does not have heartwood until it is 18 or so years old. It is often said, that Pink Ivorywood is rarer than diamonds. Oak trees do not produce acorns until 50 years old.
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