# The Hardest Wood

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardest-wood/240022>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 14, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardest-wood/240022 "2004-04-14T19:51:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardest-wood/240022/21 "2004-04-15T17:30:19Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> … A mature ironwood tree, fifty years old or so, is only about an inch or two in diameter. A friend of mine once decided to chop one down, and dulled three axes before he was done. It’s also sometimes called musclewood, since the trunk forms bulges that look like muscles. Of course, given its small diameter, it’s not good for making much other than the mother of all hiking staves. - **Chronos**

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    - That reminds me: anywhere you have bluffs, you can have trees growing right out of vertical cracks in the rocks–usually some kind of pine trees I see along the Missisippi river bluffs–and the small size of these trees (a few feet tall) gives no indication of their age. It is not unusual for a tree only four feet tall and with a trunk an inch thick to be 100-125 or more years old, and the wood is _extremely_ hard and strong. The same species of tree that ends up growing in _soil_ at the top or bottom of the bluffs grows up as big and as soft-wooded as you’d expect.  
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**Author:** ![Chotii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@Chotii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chotii)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardest-wood/240022/22 "2004-04-15T18:27:11Z")

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In the mountains of Nevada an hour or so drive outside of Las Vegas, my dad tried to cut something he called ‘mountain mahogany’ with a chainsaw. He broke 2 or 3 chains and managed to cut a chunk 4-5" thick. It was dark brown, nearly black. I have no idea what it really was. Maybe [this shrub](http://extension.usu.edu/rangeplants/Woody/curlleafmahog.htm)

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardest-wood/240022/23 "2004-04-15T23:29:59Z")

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> [@Tentacle Monster](#):
>
> Stuff like this is why I hang out here (among the many, many, many other reasons). Up to that point, I thought the ginkgo tree was the only broad-leaf evergreen. According to that, ginkgo isn’t even an evergreen tree.

The Ginkgo is what most people would call a deciduous conifer, although that isn’t really correct, as it belongs to a different division of vascular plants. It is quite an odd tree in other respects; the pollen grains release motile sperm that swim to fertilise the ovules.

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