Been a while since I posted here, but I recently cut up & split a dead/dry wax myrtle, and looked online for information on it as a firewood. Not much out there besides burning waxy berries and leaves in a fireplace is a bad idea. I'm not burning leaves or berries, just nice dry split logs in an outdoor pit down here in Florida. I'm curious about the btus and whatever information is out there that I can't find online. It split easily with an axe, and looks like it's going to burn well. We're having a Christmas cold snap for a couple days and wanted to be able to have a nice fire for people visiting. I think a lot of you are well north of the zone for this tree, but maybe you have a resource for information on this wood. Thanks
I don't know anything about it but why is burning the leaves in a fireplace bad? The berries, I can understand, that's not wood etc. Do the leaves give off dangerous fumes etc?
Didnt delve deep into it. Didn’t seem easy to delve deep into Most of the info I saw didn’t seem to come from very professional sources. I did see someone mention the leaves and berries are covered with a waxy substance hence burning in a fireplace is not advised. To that I would wonder what type of wood would be safe in a fireplace if the leaves and berries are still attached
Wax Myrtle leaves and berries are very waxy when green and create some really hot and volatile fuel when a fire is hot enough to consume them. They burn hot and fast and roll black smoke (if you have ever seen a wildfire on the coast you will know what I'm talking about). I wouldn't burn leaves (of any kind, beyond a few stuck to splits or maybe clinging on branches) in my stove fireplace and really my fire pit. Make lots of ashes and smolder. As to the wood from wax Myrtle it would make fine fire pit wood. I'm from the coast and have burned and been around plenty. If I remember right it's NOT dense at all and I would put it in about the same category as burning sweet gum or red maple. But for a fire pit, if your happy cutting that size wood do so stack it and burn it as you need.
Thanks for the replies. The waxy leaves and berries were once used as a source for wax to make candles and a variety of things by boiling it and skimming wax off. Burning leaves, berries and green wood would soot up a chimney pretty fast. This particular one has been dead a couple years and at the edge of my property, so I just let it stay standing til it was pretty dry. It was all split by axe, and really split well, much easier than sweetgum, and even a lot of red maple I've done. I'd say it's closest to silver maple which is not the best in terms of density, but it's free and plentiful. Wife's happy that there's a nice big pile of ready to use wood, and I'm happy I got to use the old chainsaw and axe. Merry Christmas, folks!
Yea I wasn't saying it would be as hard to split at sweet gum but more along the lines of the density of it. It's a soft hardwood like red maple and poplar also. It will burn fine just saying it's probably a lower BTU wood. But wood is wood and dry wood means BTUs and BTUs mean heat.
