Links to the American Beech webpage.  
 

Wood & Charcoal Identification
in Southern Maryland


Black Walnut

Black Walnut (Juglans nigra /Juglandaceae). Black walnut is native to the eastern United States, from southern Minnesota east to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York; south to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama; west to Texas; and north through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Black walnut trees reach heights of 120 ft (37 m), with a diameter of over 3 ft (1 m). Juglans nigra sapwood is light tan, with the heartwood being a dark, chocolate brown, sometimes having a purplish cast. Juglans nigra is hard, heavy, hard and stiff (high shock resistance). The wood has a straight grain, is easily worked, finishes well and holds paint and stain. It is a most durable wood, even under conditions favorable to decay (moist conditions). It is used for cabinets, fixtures, furniture, gunstocks, interior paneling, novelties and veneer.

http://www.ufei.org/urbanwood/woodproperties.html

Characteristics found in the American Black Walnut (Juglans nigra):

  • Semi-Ring Porous
  • Reticulate parenchyma
  • Tyloses & deposits
  • Simple perforations
  • I/V pits large (13 - 50µ)
  • Rays 1-8 seriate & homocellular to heterocellular
  • Ray cells round as viewed on the tangential surface
  • Crystals in Axial Parenchyma (chains of 1-5)
  • “Gashes” in Latewood Vessels

WOOD SLIDES
Click on each image to view a larger image.

  Cross-section of American Black   Walnut (Juglans nigra) showing   growth ring boundary and reticulate   parenchyma in the latewood.   Radial section of American   Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)   showing a chain of crystals.   Radial section of American   Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)   showing “gashes” in a latewood   vessel.
     
  Radial section of American Black   Walnut (Juglans nigra) showing a   close-up of “gashes” in a latewood   vessel.   Radial section of American   Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)   showing inter-vessel pits.   Tangential section of American   Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)   showing circular ray cells.

CHARCOAL SLIDES

 
 

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Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab