Ah, another stinky imported Asian exotic... is it invasive too? I have never heard of Royal Paulowina. Wiki says it is the fastest growing tree in the world. Fast growth usually = crappy firewood. Here I plant native willows for conservation/wildlife/etc. The beavers (the real beavers, not the orange college team) are on a comeback here and love them. Willows are the easiest tree to propagate of any. Cut a branch about the diameter of your thumb and stick it in the ground. Done. They grow fast and suck up a lot of water. Makes for crappy firewood though.
I have a few by my house,l they grow in twists and reek without being cut, don't know what they're really called.
I had three giant willows at my last house, took them down and they are,still,the biggest I have ever cut. I saved a little,but didn't like it all all. Terrible btu output and it stinks bad. I put an add on CL and it was gone quick. They are good for sucking up water but also clog drain lines really bad.
The good thing about paulownia is that asians value the wood. So it has timber value. I think it is the Japanese that traditionally make boxes for gifts from the wood for good luck. It is not invasive like ailanthus. Ailanthus has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Yeah that looks like the critter, they seem to like shallow dirt and their bark is a bit scaly, at first I thought they'd make a quick firewood scrounge until I caught a breeze and a bit of the stink. They are few and far between here though, they seem to like rockier areas with a lot of water flow so I see a few a long the creek bed, and one fell during a storm we had and I refuse to cut it into firewood, I'd let it rot first.
Around here they are strictly limited to plantings but your description of stinky wood reminded me that they do exist. The only one I have actually seen is in a public park.
IT doesn't seem too invasive if it was a planting that got out of control, which is good for a number of reasons.
Female ginko fruit stinks. Many towns have banned planting ginko trees for that reason. Also ginkos have urushiol in the bark which is the same stuff that poison ivy/oak have that gives you the rash. For that reason I would never burn ginko for firewood. They grow ginkos around here at organic farms for the leaves to put in herb blends and pills. Ginko leaf extract is big business.
Here, I mostly see Slippery (Red) Elm. It's possible to split by hand but I use hydraulics on it usually, just split the easy stuff by hand, like Ash, Red Oak, etc. BTU is between Black Cherry and White Ash, better than American Elm. Pretty decent stuff, and I've grabbed quite a bit of it. Got a dead 19" that fell a couple months back that I need to get.
I'll go with either box elder or a gum (I think it was like black gum). The box elder was just terrible to work with. Heavy when wet and light when dried. Plus that stuff split like rotationally and not straight. The gum tree, well it splintered more than split. Those where some nasty pieces....
Odd. The box elder I've taken rank right alongside silver maple in ease of splitting. Definitely lighter wood. Shoulder wood for sure
Good to know about Lilac. A lot of it around here --person I farm with has a large clump that gets severely cut back every once in a while. Next time, I'll grab a bunch of the branches. Thanks for the tip! I'm lucky I guess with the trees growing in my woodlot. My biggest issue is with difficulty of splitting of some of it. There isn't any that doesn't make great firewood, and most of it smells very nice indeed while burning. Love the smell of the sugar maple.
I have cut and burned box elder. It is a light maple for sure, but it split and burned OK. Not stellar, but I would not turn it down. The real problem with box elder trees here are the damm box elder bugs.
My buddy that does turning made an awesome ashes urn for the president of his wood turners club when he passed. It was boxelder burl with a lot of red in it.
We've got some huge cottonwood on the one border of my wood lot. My buddy and I looked at one huge clump of them today, and just shook our heads. Not going anywhere near them. Garbage wood for sure. I won't take cottonwood or willow. Box elder, while not the best to burn, at least it dries quickly. I'll probably have a pallet of it for next year for shoulder season. Its better than catalpa, which I have paid for from a firewood seller on cl before. Never again.
I see several mentions of Ohio Buckeye. I see it planted as ornaments in yards but have never got my hands on any. What makes it so bad? Ash, btu, splitting, smell???
