Saw a huge limb on the side of the road so I decided to go home, pick up the chainsaw, chaps, helmet, etc........ Its bark at first looked like oak but once I smelled it I felt like it wasn't. It was very green and and I'd say medium-light in terms of weight. It smells terrible, like swampy and yucky. The leaves have serrated edges on them and are kind of triangular but fat. The end grain was dark in the center and very light on the edges. I split a few rounds and the grain was super straight and fwiw it was pretty easy to buck with my Makita 36v Xcu03 electric 14" LP. Thanks in advance.
I'm thinking it's Balsam Poplar based on this here picture and link. Poplar Tree Identification - Gardenerdy
Do you have any reasons why you think it's Aspen? I looked up the aspen leaf and yes it looks very similar indeed. Then I looked up what the end grain of a round looks like and it doesn't look anything like what I have. Also I can't find anything about Aspen smelling as bad as this does....whereas poplar does seem to have this smell. I was thinking more about the smell - it smells like horses or horse manure......Real in your face and not that pleasant, at least for me. Look at this screenshot of a video of a guy with a ton of aspen trunks. Doesn't look anything like my pics although the bark does look very similar. Another tree it might be is White Mulberry. I read that Mulberry also stinks and in this video you can see a leaf right at the beginning of the video with serrated edges and the end of the round looks almost exactly like my wood.
Im guessing based on the bark and leaves. I know mulberry heartwood will turn from yellow to red after a couple weeks cut. Dont know if white mulberry does the same.
It was extremely wet when I tried to split it to the point where when I actually split I got splashed by its wetness. That sounds dirty. It was.
In the poplar aspen family. Growing up here on LI these teees are planted by towns for ornamental reasons and since the riots don’t rip up sidewalks
I think you might be right. Just saw this here thread and pic and that looks just like the wood I picked up. And I don't know if this is true but the ends of the rounds felt a bit "cottony". Cottonwood for trailer deck? vs Oak? in Sawmills and Milling
Why do we do that? I remember fishing Berkeley power worms for the first time in Canada about 25 years ago. Every time my brother would open the bag he would smell the worms and say, "these things stink".
