Ambrosia Maple

[Ned Ladner]

I acquired a small log that I was told was Ambrosia Maple. As you can see in the photo, this wood has the pink streaks like Box Elder. (excuse the poorly lit iPhone pic, and the orientation). Is this really Ambrosia Maple?

[Steve Demuth]

I would say it's Box Elder. I've never seen anything close to that red in Ambrosia Maple. Ambrosia Maple is also generally more brown than white in the ground color than this item.

The black is interesting. Is that staining, inclusions or holes?

[daryl moses]

Looks like Box Elder to me as well. I assume the black "spots" are insect tracks?
It is a nice bowl, nicely done!!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Ned, the “Ambrosia Maple” name is not quite right, it should be “Ambrosia beetle infected wood” as there are other species of wood that do get infected with the Ambrosia beetle, like Sycamore for instance.

The soft Maples, like the Silver Maple are the ones that do get the infection most often, so that would than be Ambrosia beetle infected Silver Maple, quite a mouth full, and it is much easier and sounds better to call it Ambrosia Maple, but it really is still Silver Maple, or here Acer negundo.

The Ambrosia beetle carries a fungus that multiplies in the tree where it makes the long thin tunnels that than discolor by the fungus in there, so the wood has these long brownish lines with the very small entry and exit openings of the beetle.

Looking at your picture (Nice bowl BTW) I would say you have a wormy piece of wood, Manitoba Maple or box elder as you guys call it ;), but not Ambrosia beetle infected wood, IMO :)

Here’s a picture of the beetle’s openings and the resulting lines in the wood.

371501

[Robert Marshall]

Box elder is a variety of maple, species name Acer Negundo. One of its common characteristics is the presence of streaks of red or pink in the wood, which are caused by either a fungus or a bug, or perhaps a combination of the two. I think the causation is not a settled question.

But like many varieties of maple, Acer Negundo also is infested at times with the ambrosia beetle, which causes streaks of brown, often bordered with black, through the wood, in areas where bug holes made by the beetles are present.

So, you can have both forms of ornamentation in one piece of wood: the red/pink streaks uniquely found in box elder (Acer Negundo), and ambrosia streaking, found in several other species of maple as well.

Here is an example of box elder with ambrosia markings (near top right of the bowl):

371512

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Box elder is a variety of maple, species name Acer Negundo. One of its common characteristics is the presence of streaks of red or pink in the wood, which are caused by either a fungus or a bug, or perhaps a combination of the two. I think the causation is not a settled question.

But like many varieties of maple, Acer Negundo also is infested at times with the ambrosia beetle, which causes streaks of brown, often bordered with black, through the wood, in areas where bug holes made by the beetles are present.

So, you can have both forms of ornamentation in one piece of wood: the red/pink streaks uniquely found in box elder (Acer Negundo), and ambrosia streaking, found in several other species of maple as well.

Here is an example of box elder with ambrosia markings (near top right of the bowl):

Yes Robert as I indicated, Acer negundo alias Manitoba Maple et Boxelder, does get the Red staining, like in the OP’s bowl, 371540 the staining has been studied again recently and the cause as a non-specific host response by the tree, more research has to be done to what the stain compounds do for the tree as it responds to the host (fungi or damage).

Here is a lengthy, peer reviewed studio on he Red stain in Boxelder, if you are interested it gives the details of the study.

http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/research/redstain/

Here’s the study outcome in short.
371541

And also the Ambrosia beetles symbiotic relation with the Ambrosia Fungi, and the staining it causes.

371542 371543