Osage heartwood puzzle ?

[Jim Davis]

I have noticed that long dead Osage seems to have heartwood right under the bark, which makes me think the sapwood transforms to heartwood on a schedule whether the tree is alive or not. That is, it turns to heartwood after a while even if the tree dies.

Has anyone ever come across an old stave or log that was stored for many years with the bark or sapwood on? I'm talking maybe 15 years or more. Was there still white sapwood?

One curious mind wants to know.

Jim Davis

[osage outlaw]

I think the sapwood deteriorates and rots away leaving just the yellow heart wood.  The really old logs I've cut had a thin crumbly layer of what used to be the sapwood. 

[DavidV]

From what I've seen the sapwood rots away before the bark does, even if it's still on the tree. Never seen the bark tight on a long dead tree.

[Jim Davis]

I've only been cutting Osage for 5 years, but I have dropped some dead trees that still had bark, but the wood right under the bark was hard and orange. Mummified, maybe? 

[J05H]

I bought an osage stave once that had been kept indoors for over twenty years. I could tell no difference in the amount of sapwood between it an some osage I cut myself.

[Jim Davis]

I bought an osage stave once that had been kept indoors for over twenty years. I could tell no difference in the amount of sapwood between it an some osage I cut myself.

OK. That sounds like a proof to me. Thanks everyone.

[Dances with squirrels]

I cut an osage tree that was standing dead for a long time. Over 12 years dead I'd say, perhaps as long as 20 or so. Both the heartwood and sapwood were like a petrified rock. I almost gave up on it more than once. It did have easily distinguishable sapwood, about 1/4". It was a smallish tree, about 4 or 5" at the base. It did make a bow.

[Jim Davis]

I cut an osage tree that was standing dead for a long time. Over 12 years dead I'd say, perhaps as long as 20 or so. Both the heartwood and sapwood were like a petrified rock. I almost gave up on it more than once. It did have easily distinguishable sapwood, about 1/4". It was a smallish tree, about 4 or 5" at the base. It did make a bow.

That's the kind of thing I have found. Heading back to the Osage patch in a few minutes--not especially after dead wood, but I'm going.

[joachimM]

I've had this with black locust as well. Smaller trees that died spontaneously have this quite regularly, and have rather loose bark.
I tried to coerce a few young trees (up to 15 cm diameter) to do this for me by ringing them with a chainsaw a year ago, cutting through the cambium layer so as to impede the sap flow from leaves to roots, thereby forcing the tree to slowly wither and die. I had hoped that the sapwood would undergo the same slow transformation and turn into heartwood (sapwood becomes heartwood because the xylem vessels stop functioning, and secondary metabolites are then deposited in the vessels. But it didn't work out as I had hoped. It seems the bark really needs to loosen from the sapwood to get this effect.

[wapiti1997]

If it's dead standing, it probably didn't put much wood on in the last years of it's life, really tight rings and thin sapwood.  Only a vigorously growing tree will have thick sapwood and thick rings.