Can wood be worth a fortune? How to identify wood at a glance?

Not long ago, the water level of the Jialing River in Chongqing receded. A couple of citizens unexpectedly discovered a huge "sunken wood" in the river while walking along the river!

Source: Weibo screenshot

As the old saying goes: Experts look at details, while laymen look at the excitement. For many people, wood that others can identify at a glance may not be noticed even if it is placed around them. The editor saw some netizens saying in the comments that this kind of "sunken wood" is very precious, and it is a good deal to dig it up! Is this really the case?

Today, I will talk to you about the things about dark wood~

1

What is sunken wood?

Sunken wood, also known as the "mummy of the plant world", refers to a special type of wood formed in a humid, oxygen-deficient, weakly acidic environment.

The formation of sunken wood usually occurs during disasters such as earthquakes, floods, mudslides, and glacial movements. As trees collapse and are buried in low-lying areas such as riverbeds and silt, they are decomposed and transformed by microorganisms in a humid, oxygen-deficient, high-pressure environment, and are formed after thousands or even tens of thousands of years of slow changes.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

For example, the ebony (sunken wood) in the ebony forest of the Jinsha Ruins Museum in Chengdu has been dated to be 3,000 to 12,000 years old by the carbon-14 isotope method. When most of the sunken wood is discovered, the surface is generally black, so it is also called "ebony".

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

In my country's national standard for red wood (GB/T 18107-2017), there is also the term "ebony", which refers to the tree species in the Diospyros family that contains black wood, which is black inside and out. However, the dark wood is only black on the surface, but not necessarily on the inside.

From the theoretical classification of modern wood science, sunken wood is a semi-carbonized wood, which is between carbon and wood. Because many hemicelluloses and α-cellulose in the wood are decomposed, its density is greater than that of ordinary trees.

The dark wood without cellulose is not particularly popular with termites and other woodworms (these wood-boring insects are usually good at decomposing cellulose). Therefore, dark wood also has the characteristics of insect resistance and moth resistance. In ancient times, people used this characteristic of dark wood to make coffins . Previously, the No. 1 coffin chamber in the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan, was analyzed to be dark wood.

2

What kind of trees can form sunken wood?

Sunken wood does not refer to a single tree species. There are many types of trees that can form sunken wood, such as Castanopsis glauca, Cinnamomum camphora, Phoebe nanmu, and Salix matsudana. They all have one characteristic, that is, they all have fragrance and bactericidal effects .

The characteristics of the sunken wood formed by different tree species are also different. For example, the texture of the iron mulberry sunken wood is harder, while the texture of the red toon sunken wood is softer. Some can sink underwater, while others float on the water.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

The wood grain of the dark wood is fine, and some wood can be used to make furniture and artworks after being polished. However, when most dark wood is discovered, the inside is usually rotten, and if the carbonization is serious, it cannot be used anymore.

3

Why is sunken wood so valuable?

In fact, the dark wood is not uncommon. In China, the dark wood is mainly produced in the area around the big rivers and their tributaries in Sichuan. The ancient riverbed in Sichuan is the main production area of ​​the dark wood. Other regions such as Guangxi and Hunan have also unearthed dark wood.

These places have lush vegetation, many mountains and trees, and many tree species containing aromatic oils. In addition, geological disasters are prone to occur here. Such conditions are very conducive to the formation of dark wood.

Although compared with other woods, the number of dark wood is small and the price is slightly higher, but it is far from being "worth a fortune". The price of dark wood is related to the quality of the tree species. If it is a dark wood formed by Nanmu, such as golden nanmu dark wood , it has been "hyped" in the market.

In 2017, a piece of Phoebe nanmu was found in Jiayu, Hubei. It was identified as Ming Dynasty wood, more than 600 years old, belonging to Phoebe nanmu, worth 20 million yuan, and was later donated to the Palace Museum in Beijing. Most of the wood is worth only a few thousand yuan per ton, not tens of thousands per pound as netizens say.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

In addition to being a wood material, the value of the sunken wood is more reflected in its scientific research value. Because the sunken wood has been underground for a long time, we can extract and analyze information about ancient climate, ancient geology and ancient ecology by examining the texture and composition of the wood.

However, the scientific research value of the sunken wood excavated from different regions is also different, and it needs to be determined by experts. In general, sunken wood is not uncommon, and not all sunken wood is worth a fortune, so we need to be more rational about this kind of wood.

For ordinary people, let alone whether we can identify trees at a glance in nature, even if we really pick up a piece of "mummy" wood like this, we cannot tell whether it is valuable or not. Instead of being cheated by others, it is better to hand it over to relevant departments and professionals for safekeeping. What do you think?