Made a pass through the local tree pit and picked up a full pickup load of wood. I had no trouble IDing all the Elm and was lucky to snag some Honey Locust. I love HL when I can get my hands on it. Anyway, I also found the very green remains of a tree I couldn't solidly identify. I have posted pictures of what I believe were the stem and branches from the same tree below. My only guess is Aspen because I've seen that when I venture up to the Rockies from time to time. The branches remind me of Aspen, but the stem just doesn't seem to match with what I recall. My phone was throwing either Aspen or Alder, and I am not at all familiar with Alder. Any thoughts? It was easy to split. Straight grained, super heavy, but very wet and green. I don't think it was down at the pit for very long when I got to it. Thanks as always!
The bark on the younger branches sure looks a lot like white poplar, which is the European variant of our native trembling aspen trees. To complicate things they hybridize with trembling aspen, and many nurseries actually sell fast-growing hybrid poplars for landscaping. 100% sure it's in the populus genus. For firewood purposes I'd call it poplar/aspen.
I appreciate the responses so far. Hadn't considered Poplar. I've plowed through plenty of Cottonwood which I know is related. But this definitely wasn't Cottonwood so I threw that out the window. One more point I thought to add. It smells like azz. Absolutely rough smell when I opened them up. Trash, dumpster, dirty diaper smell. I live within range of almost 30 feed lots and would take any of that smell over this stinker. Could be that the rounds were down at the pit long enough for some bacteria to invade and get busy. But I think that should rule out Sassafras? That should have a pleasant smell right? It's not common around here either, but I've heard it has a very pleasant odor when opened.
Sassafras has a spicy almost citrus smell, nothing close to diaper/trash/dumpster. I know a lot of the aspen I've cut here hasn't been pleasant smelling either, although IME cottonwood is a shade worse for fragrance.
Late to the party here. Looks like cottonwood/aspen and the heavy description fits. Not a wood I have a lot of experience with. Nice grab on the other primo woods. Makes my day when I leave the dump with a decent amount of wood.
I was thinking cottonwood to begin with but said white poplar. I thought the OP dismissed cottonwood right off the bat. But upon further review and rereading the thread, Cottonwood! Final answer!
