Is this tree worth investigating further?

[Jeremy Leasure]

I don't know what it is specifically, but it's in the neighbors yard and gave up the ghost completely this year. He said someone called it a "monkey" tree once. It looks like some kind of fir or something. The real interest is in how lumpy and bumpy this thing is. It doesn't come across as much in the photo but it's nutty looking in person. I was hoping to get an ID and find out if it might be worth paying (and I don't know how much something like that even costs) to have it taken down to get the wood.


http://i.imgur.com/Gj9p5.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3q7aS.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/sF6RA.jpg

[Steve knight]

it is a monkey puzzle tree. cool tree really with huge pine cones. it is a slow grower so should have tight rings. it can't take really cold weather so a cold snap may have done it in.

[Steve knight]

it is not a conifer though it is evergreen. Not sure but never noticed but I don't think it is sappy. it is a hardwood not a softwood tree.

[Roger Chandler]

I deleted my other post........just went to look up the definition of "conifer" which is indeed another word for evergreen ...see definition below from Miriam-Websters Dictonary:

Definition of CONIFER

: any of an order (Coniferales) of mostly evergreen trees and shrubs having usually needle-shaped or scalelike leaves and including forms (as pines) with true cones and others (as yews) with an arillate fruit

I think we were on the same page with this just using different terms for the same family of trees. I have never seen a hardwood with the branches like that tree......looks a lot like a Norfolk Island pine on the small branches.........not saying it is that, but that is why it reminded me of a conifer of some sort.

[Steve knight]

I should have said not a softwood tree like conifers in the us.

[Jason Ritchie]

We have a cabin near Mt. Mitchell in NC and this looks a lot like Hemlock. If that's the case, it makes good lumber but has a very plain grain.

[Rich Aldrich]

My guess would have been spruce, but you said it is a hardwood. The bark sure looks like spruce.

[Jim Burr]

Only if I get a Flat rate box...other than that...not worth a nickle!

[Thomas Canfield]

To me, it looks like something to try a deep hollow end grain form out of a section with all the limbs. It looks like there are boring holes in some of th bark, and the wood may have suffered a beetle attack that killed the tree and be full of holes, but I have turned some dead pine with beetle holes and it was OK. Take a look at it when they cut it down and see how solid the wood is or if decay has started. I have better luck with wood from trees cut when live.

[Jeff Nicol]

I am sorry to bust up the fun but the bark and the limbs are all wrong for a Monkey Puzzle tree. The reason for the "Puzzle" in the name is because many of the trees bark looks like pieces of a puzzle and the tree most always grow very straight and tall with little troughs or valleys in the trunk. Since I don't know where the tree is located I can't make a good determination of the trees real ID. But with what you show in the pictures and by the little "BURL" on one of the limbs it looks like a good old Jack pine, the bark is correct, the limb structure is right and many of them die before one thinks they should.

But it also could be some sort of spruce, but the bark and the uneven valleys in the trunk lead me away from a spruce but then the closeness of the radial limbs keeps me in the spruce realm. With so many limbs in a tight proximity to one another there may have been damage to the leader of the tree at a few occasions due to bugs, a bird landing on it and breaking it off etc. This will force either a split leader or one of the radial limbs will take over the leader roll, and this could have caused the mass of limbs in one area. The other thing that makes me think spruce is the small limbs, they are very spruce like. I have Norway spruce, black and white spruce available to me so I have seen a lot of them. The jack pine grows here in WI like weeds so I have seen a lot of them.

So after all my ramblings let me know the location as the monkey puzzle grows on the west cost and in Florida or warmer moister climates as it originated in Chile and Peru in South America.

For what its worth,

Jeff

[Jeremy Leasure]

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions. The tree is located in NW Tennessee. I talked to the neighbor and he said I could have all the wood from it I wanted when it comes down, but getting it taken down isn't in the budget for him right now. I don't really want to pay for it to come down sooner if it isn't likely to be something really nice. I'd take it down myself but it's too close to the house for my experience.

Monkey puzzle would be great, as I did look up some images of bowls made from it. The radial and symmetric patterns the limbs make are really cool. However, the bark does look completely wrong as noted by Jeff.

[robert baccus]

I smell overgrown burls and very pretty grain standing there regardless of the species. northern evergreens produce some knockout burls and crazy grain. Old forester