These things lean and twist in any direction in search of sunlight. I just cut this red elm with a "U" shaped trunk. It's not just buttress roots at the stump. The trunk has the same shape for the first 6 to 8 feet, which you can sort of see in the second photo. It's been dead two years. Branch wood is ready to burn. Top half of trunk is somewhat dry. Bottom half is dripping water from the rounds. At least it smells like cinnamon. American elm is the nasty stuff. Red elm (aka slippery elm) smells ok. Red elm is good firewood. The branches in particular are quite dense, about the same as red oak.
Are you sure that’s red? Looks more like white elm to me. Red elm is usually consistently brown all the way through
My other photos didn't show the weirdness very well, so let's try this. This is what the trunk looks like about 15 feet up.
Could be, but it smells like cinnamon almonds. I can tell them apart when alive by looking at and feeling the leaves. When dead with half or more of the bark missing, I go by smell, mostly. If it smells nasty, it's American. If it smells sort of like candied almonds, it's red. That is my unscientific method. This could be a nice smelling dead American elm, if such a thing exists. Good firewood either way if seasoned and top covered.
Might you be thinking of Siberian elm? That stuff has a few rings of white sap wood and is mostly dark red heart wood. I have heard people call Siberian elm red elm. What I am calling red elm is also called slippery elm. The technical name is ulmus rubra, which means red elm in latin. The bark is similar to American elm but a little flatter. Siberian elm (ulmus pumila) has deeply furrowed bark and dark red heartwood. I'm no elm expert, but this is my understanding. If I'm wrong, I'll study more. .
Primo stuff!! The limb chunks sound like bowling pins when you knock ‘em together. Good burning, dense stuff. Dead standing Elm is probably 75% of what I burn.
I've only cut young ( < 5 years old ) red elm so I can't speak to the color of the wood as it gets more mature. If the leaf surface is rough, it's slippery (red) elm, and if it's smooth that's American. Agreed Siberian elm is darker all the way through it, other than the sapwood ring. Also Siberian has much smaller leaves than our native elms.
huskihl I just read this on Arborist site: Both American Elm and Slippery Elm are consistent in color from outside to core. THERE IS NO CHANGE IN COLOR ONCE THE WOOD SURFACES HAVE HAD A DAY OR SO TO DRY!!! If your elm has a dark center it is not American Elm or Slippery Elm… most likely it is Siberian Elm. Rock Elm will have a change in color about at about the 1/3 from the outside point, and it will be very heavy, dense wood. American Elm has white to slightly off-white wood. Slippery (Red) Elm will vary (depending on the tree) from off-white, to a flesh tone, to a brownish-reddish color… more of a tint than a brilliant color. The "color" in my photos is just varying degrees of wetness. It's not actual wood color. Those photos were taken 10 minutes after I felled the tree. I will check back to see how the wood looks in a few days.
Standing dead elm got me through my first two seasons of burning, before I learned the art of firewood hoarding. I was also fortunate to have standing dead white ash, and fallen dead ash that fell on something and wasn't touching the forest floor. In both cases I cut dead trees all winter, drying the splits in front of the stove for a few days before sticking them in the stove. I have a great appreciation or standing dead elm, whether American or red.
I should have mentioned, this was before I had a power splitter, and all I had was a battery powered 36v Makita chainsaw. So I was out there in the snow, cutting trees with a battery powered saw, and splitting them with a Fiskers maul. Now I'm spoiled with fast gas saws and hydro splitters. I really enjoyed hand splitting, it's just slow in comparison.
