What is Iron Wood

msamara said:

*WOOD*Types*is divided by*properties*of*WOOD*to two groups (HARDWOOD and*SOFTWOOD).

Types of*wood*are collecting many*kinds of wood*and everyone have a shape*and color*different than other. All these changes and variations make*Wood usable*in many things in our life from heating*to*craft*Wooden Case for Iphone.*

Hardwood*come from angiosperm trees which usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly*evergreen.

*Softwood*is*coming*from Gymnosperm trees. And the surprise is not all*kind of Hardwood*is hardener than*Softwood. The hardness of*wood*is related to density of tree trunk.

*Ironwood*isn't*kind of wood**yielded from tree but it's a*kind of wood*which have hardness, durability and resist fire , weather and acids.
In addition*to the mostly*kind of wood*use today Known as*Engineered*WOOD*,composite*WOOD,*man-made WOOD, or*manufactured board.

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If you are referring to "Iron Bark" which is I think native to Australia it is VERY hard and heavy. I was given the boards shown a few years ago but haven't attempted to make anything with them, yet!

Ironwood is one of the largest and longest-lived Sonoran Desert plants, reaching 45 feet in height and persisting as long as 1,500 years.

It is a single or multi-trunked evergreen tree, and displays lavender to pink flowers in May. By early summer, the pods mature. Each 2-inch pod contains one to four shiny brown seeds that are relished by many Sonoran animals, from small mammals and birds to humans. Its iron-like wood is renowned as one of the world's densest woods.

The shaded sanctuary and richer soils created by ironwoods increase plant diversity and provide benefits to wildlife. Ironwoods are too hard to provide nesting cavities for birds, but the cacti that grow beneath them provide such opportunities. Insects abound within the ironwood complex, attracting birds and reptiles. As with other legumes, the ironwood's leaf litter supplies nitrogen to the soil and its seeds provide a protein-rich resource for doves, quail, coyotes, and many small rodents.

The Ironwood tree is found only in the Sonoran Desert, in the dry locales below 2,500 feet, where freezing temperatures are uncommon. In fact the Ironwood's habitat is almost an exact match of the Sonoran Desert boundry. Ironwoods are most common in dry ephemeral washes. Ironwoods function as oases of fertile and sheltered habitat within a harsh and challenging desert landscape. As a tree becomes established, it tempers the physical environment beneath it, creating a micro-habitat with less direct sunlight, lower surface temperatures, more organic matter, higher water availability, and protection from herbivores. Because of these factors, the Ironwood tree has immense ecological value in the Sonoran Desert.

Ironwood grows taller than most trees in Sonoran desert scrub, so it serves as a great perch and roost for hawks and owls. It's dense canopy is utilized by nearly 150 bird species. Add tall ironwoods to the scrubby vegetation on some desert bajadas, and you're likely to add 63 percent more birds than creosote, cactus and bursage alone could support. The ironwood's canopies are so dense that they reduce the probability of extreme heat exposure in the summer.

Air temperatures may be 15 degrees cooler under ironwoods than in the open desert sun five feet away. Ironwood also shelters frost sensitive young saguaros, organ pipe cactus, night-blooming cereus and many other native plants growing beneath them. More than 230 plant species have been recorded starting their growth within the protective microclimate under ironwood "nurse plants." This also creates an optimum wildflower nursery which is foraged by rabbits, bighorn, and other native species.

In addition to the birds, there are 62 reptiles and amphibians, and 64 mammals that use ironwoods for forage, cover and birthing grounds. At just one site in the Silverbell Mountains, an ironwood-bursage habitat also shelters some 188 kinds of bees, 25 ant colonies, and 25 other types of insects. That adds up to an extraordinary level of biodiversity.

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Sorry, Mohamed - living in Egypt, you may be pursuaded to believe this, but here where I live; Ironwood is the common name for a couple of species. I have formal educations in botany, biology, zoology, etc. and one very simple fact remains true WORLDWIDE and in all LIFE SCIENCES. Common names mean very little, but SCIENTIFIC NAMES mean a lot. Another common name for ironwood (in my area) is hornbeam.

Another example is the term "puff adder" - over in Africa, the "Puff Adder" is a rather large, highly venomous snake - but here in Georgia, USA - "puff adder" is used to describe the hog-nosed snake which is a small, basically harmless species.

*Ironwood*isn't*kind of wood**yielded from tree but it's a*kind of wood*which have hardness, durability and resist fire , weather and acids.
In addition*to the mostly*kind of wood*use today Known as*Engineered*WOOD*,composite*WOOD,*man-made WOOD, or*manufactured board.

Click to expand...

My next-door neighbor calls me "Tater-head", but that's not my real name. I call him "monkey lips", but that's not his real name, either. I sincerely doubt if his mother calls him "monkey lips", but she may have a more suitable name for him than Brandon.

You may, indeed; have a product available in your area, which is man-made and called "Ironwood", but that doesn't "close the book" on the rest of the world.

Otis Polk Guillebeau III (a.k.a. Tater head) from Auburn, Georgia USA