Exotic Wood myrtle

WOOD ID POSTER:
co-created by, and sponsored by, HobbitHouse

240 woods on a poster (24"x36")

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MYRTLE

botanical name unknown
There are at well over 100 species worldwide, from at least 40 different genera, that have the word myrtle as all or part of one or more of their common names and except as specifically stated, I have no idea which of them are represented on this page.

There is at least some confusion between woods listed as laurel and those listed as myrtle. I have pages for both of those listings on this site, but I am NOT confident that the distinctions that I have found are correct or consistent.

my samples --- colors are accurate throughout:

this first set of pics is from a pair of small planks that started off in the same larger plank, as you can pretty well see from the first pic. This set was donated by Jim Glynn, whom I thank for this and his several other donations to the site.

both pieces and a closeup of each. I flipped the first piece when I did the closeup so as to show a few bug holes.

flip side of the smaller piece

end-and-side-grain shots

side grain --- the small light tan dots are where there were small indentations in the wood that got filled up with sawdust when I sanded the piece.

two end grain closeups from the pieces directly above --- for some reason the pics came out much too dark and in attempting to get the color more correct I have changed it to a washed out look that isn't quite right either, but is more correct than the very dark pics I started with. The non-closeup shots above have accurate color.

more of my own samples:

both sides and end grain of a small flawed piece that I got in a mixed lot of cutoffs --- I have no idea how representative this is of the wood and in fact one person told me that this might actually be a walnut species and not myrtle at all.

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

burl veneer --- on the first piece, the color is close but not quite right. The actual wood is just slightly more green than what shows up here. Color on the 2nd one is accurate.

myrtle burl veneer sheet and closeup --- color is accurate

quartermatched and bookmatched veneer sheets of a lightly burled area with a lot of curl

bookmatched burl veneer sheets

quartermatched burl veneer set

this veneer sheet spent some time on the mystery wood page before being identified by Jim Johnson was Oregon myrtle. Thanks, Jim. The color is just a little more olive green than this pic shows.

web pics

slabs

slab, apparently cut out for a rifle butt

veneer --- I'm very dubious about the color on this one but cannot say with authority that it is incorrect.

planks

plank

both sides and a closeup of a plank labled as "purple veined" myrtle

both sides and a closeup of a plank

ropey curly plank and closeup

figured

crotch

spalted mrytle --- the 2nd piece was listed as curly spalted but the spalting is quite weak as far as I can see

highly colored mrytle

Oregon myrtle planks

plank listed as pepperwood / oregon myrtle / Umbellularia californica

curly Oregon myrtle planks

waxed oregon myrtle turning stock

fiddleback oregon myrtle

pomelle figured Oregon myrtle

listed as "black streaked" oregon myrtle

"tiger striped"

listed as California myrtle and appears to be a burl although it was not so listed. I am not aware of any difference between California myrtle and Oregon myrtle, except that the former is listed by people who do not want to be thought of as people who would live in Oregon. Why this is, I do not know. :-)

a turning block (looks like a feather crotch block to me, but was not advertised as such)

feather crotch (both from the same vendor)

two pics of a plank with a feather crotch in it

crotch

rose myrtle

both sides and a closeup of a "golden" myrtle plank from the BogusColorVendor so I'm not confident of the color

figured

curly

curly pen blanks (I believe these have been moistened, so this is not the raw wood color)

pen blanks that have been moistened --- appear to be from a burl but I'm not positive, and they were not listed as burl

fiddleback

both sides and two closeups of a fiddleback plank

fiddleback plank and closeup

burls

a set of burls all from the same vendor

more burls

black mrytle burls

pink burl (the 2nd piece has been moistened)

burl veneer

burl veneer listed as myrtle / Umbellularia californica and all from the same vendor --- this is among the most bland and uninteresting myrtle burl veneer I've ever encountered.

listed as "light" burl veneer and I don't know whether that's just a comment on the obvious (that it's a light-colored burl) or whether "light" is a commonly used sub-species or common name in the myrtle family. I'll check it out.