White Cedar - Thuja Occidentalis
Janka Hardness - 350 -
An evergreen coniferous tree, in the cypress family Cupressaceae,
which is widely cultivated for use as an ornamental plant. The endemic
occurrence of this species is a north-eastern distribution in North
America. It is thought to be the first tree of that region to be
cultivated in Europe.
Northern white cedar is commercially used for rustic fencing and posts, lumber, poles, shingles and in the construction of log cabins, White cedar is the preferred wood for the structural elements, such as ribs and planking, of birchbark canoes and the planking of wooden canoes.
The foliage of thuja is rich in Vitamin C and is believed to be the annedda which cured the scurvy of Jacques Cartier and his party in the winter of 1535–1536. Due to the neurotoxic compound thujone, internal use can be harmful and is not recommended.
The essential oil within the plant has been used for cleansers, disinfectants, hair preparations, insecticides, liniment, room sprays, and soft soaps. There are some reports that the Ojibwa made a soup from the inner bark of the soft twigs. Others have used the twigs to make teas to relieve constipation and headache.
Red Cedar - Juniperus Virginiana
Janka Hardness - 580
A species of juniper
native to eastern North America, from southeastern Canada, Gulf of
Mexico, east of the Great Plains. Further west, it is replaced by the
related Juniperus scopulorum (Rocky Mountain Juniper), and to the
southwest, by Juniperus ashei (Ashe Juniper). The Lakota Native American name is
Chansha, "redwood" or Hante'.
In its native range, it is commonly called "cedar" or "red cedar",
names rejected by the American Joint Committee on Horticultural
Nomenclature as it is a juniper, not a true cedar.
The fine-grained, soft brittle pinkish- to brownish-red heartwood is fragrant, very light and very durable, even in contact with soil.
Because of its rot resistance the wood is used for fence posts. Because
the aromatic wood is avoided by moths it is in demand as lining for
clothes chests and closets, often referred to as cedar closets and
cedar chests. It was once a premier wood for pencils. If correctly
prepared, it makes excellent English style longbows, flatbows, and
Native American type sinewed bows. The wood is marketed as "eastern
redcedar" or "aromatic cedar".
Native American tribes used juniper wood poles to mark out agreed tribal hunting territories. French traders named Baton Rouge, Louisiana (meaning "red stick") from the reddish color of these poles.
During the dust bowl drought in the 1930s, the Prairie States Forest Project encouraged farmers to plant shelterbelts (wind breaks) made of Eastern Juniper throughout the Great Plains. They grow well under adverse conditions. Both drought tolerant and cold tolerant, they grow well in rocky, sandy, and clay substrate. Competition between trees is minimal, so it can be planted in tightly spaced rows and the trees still grow to full height creating a solid windbreak in a short period of time.[14]
In the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks,
Eastern Juniper is commonly used as a christmas tree.
Hickory - Carya Ovata
Janka hardness - 1820
Hickory wood is extremely tough, yet flexible, and is valued for tool handles, bows (like yew), wheel spokes, carts, drumsticks, lacrosse stick handles, golf club shafts (sometimes still called hickory stick, even though made of steel or graphite), the bottom of skis, walking canes etc. and for punitive use as a switch (like hazel), and especially as a cane-like hickory stick in schools. Baseball bats were formerly made of hickory but are now more commonly made of ash. Hickory is also highly prized for wood-burning stoves, because of its high caloric content. Hickory wood is also a preferred type for smoke curing meats. In the Southern United States, hickory is popular for cooking barbecue, as hickory grows abundantly in the region, and adds flavor to the meat. Hickory is sometimes used for hardwood flooring due to its durability and character.
A bark extract from shagbark hickory is also used in an edible syrup that is similar to maple syrup, with a slightly bitter, smoky taste.
The nuts
of some species are palatable, while others are bitter and only
suitable for animal feed. Shagbark and Shellbark Hickories, along with
the Pecan, are regarded by some as the finest nut trees.
Aspen - Populus tremuloides
Janka Hardness - 420
A tall, fast growing tree, usually 66' to 82' at maturity, with a trunk 0.66' to 2.62' in diameter; records are 120' in height and 4.5' in diameter.
The bark is relatively smooth, colored greenish-white to gray, and is marked by thick black horizontal scars and prominent black knots. Parallel vertical scars are tell-tale signs of elk, which strip off aspen bark with their front teeth.
The leaves on mature trees are nearly round, 1.6" to 3.1" in diameter with small rounded teeth, and a 1.2" to 2.8" long, flattened petiole. Young trees (including root sprouts) have much larger 3.9" to 7.9" long nearly triangular leaves.
The flowers are catkins 1.6" to 2.4" long, produced in early spring before the leaves; it is dioecious, with male and female catkins on different trees. The fruit is a 3.9" pendulous string of 1/4" capsules, each capsule containing about ten minute seeds embedded in cottony fluff, which aids wind dispersal of the seeds when they are mature in early summer.The quaking aspen is the State Tree of Utah.
Aspen bark contains a substance that was extracted by North American peoples and the pioneers of the western U.S. as a quinine substitute.
Like other poplars, aspens make poor fuel wood, as they dry slowly, rot quickly, and do not give off much heat. Yet they are still widely used in camp-grounds because they are cheap and plentiful and not widely used in building lumber. Pioneers in the North American west used them to create log cabins and dugouts, though they were not the preferred species.
The leaves of the Quaking Aspen and other species in the genus Populus serve as food for caterpillars of various moths and butterflies. See List of Lepidoptera that feed on poplars.
In Canada, it is used mainly for pulp products such as books, news-print, and fine printing paper. Aspen is especially good for panel products such as oriented strand board and waferboard. Its lumber is light in weight and is used for furniture, boxes and crates, core stock in plywood, and wall panels.
Black Walnut - Juglans Nigra
Janka Hardness - 1010
commonly known as black walnut or American
walnut,
is a tree species native to eastern North America. It grows mostly
alongside rivers, from southern Ontario, Canada west to southeast South
Dakota, south to Georgia, northern Florida and southwest to central
Texas.
Black Walnut is highly prized for its dark-colored true heartwood. It
is heavy and strong, yet easily split and worked. Walnut wood has
historically been used for gunstocks, furniture, flooring, paddles,
coffins, and a variety of other woodworking products. Due to its value,
forestry officials often are called on to track down walnut poachers;
in 2004, DNA testing was used to solve one such poaching case,
involving a 55 foot (16m) tree worth US $2500. Black walnut has a
density per cubic metre of 660kg (41.2 lb/cubic foot)[1],
which makes it lighter than oak.
Sugar Maple - Acer Saccharum , Also Ambrosia Maple
Janka Hardness - 910 to 950
A species of maple native to the hardwood forests of
northeastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario,
and south to Georgia and Texas.
The wood is one of the hardest and densest of the maples, and is prized
for furniture and flooring. Bowling
alleys and bowling pins are both commonly manufactured from sugar
maple. Trees with wavy wood grain, which can occur in curly, quilted
and "birdseye maple"
form, are especially valued. Maple is also the wood used for basketball
courts, including the floors used by the NBA, and it is a popular wood
for baseball bats, along with white
ash.