Pernese Woods
This information is provided by Craftsecond, Qinan. Thanks for all the hard work and research!!!
Format: Tree Name - Native? - Location - Type - Uses - Description
Skybroom - Yes - Lemos - Hard - Roof supports, shipmasts, large furniture, doors - A very tall tree with dense metal hard wood. These tall trunks terminate in bushy crowns with tufted needles. It is a difficult wood to work and highly prized.
Oak - No - Lemos, Tillek, Igen - Hard - Desks, beds, other large furniture, flooring, wine barrels and vats, instruments - Oak trees can grow up to 35 meters in height and are large in size, trunks being measured up to 1.8 meters in diameter. Oak is a dense wood, white to pinkish-red in color. The grain is straight and distinct, because of its density the wood is hard to work and troublesome to dry.
Teakwood - No - Nerat - Hard - Carving, a noted ship building wood, as well for producing wonderful furniture - The teakwood tree is variable in size. It can grow up to 40 meters in height and produces a very beautiful wood. The color is an even golden-brown, with several variations of a darker brown coloring. It has a coarse and uneven texture, greasy feel, and leathery smell. It dries slowly but comes out strong and sturdy, and is extremely durable.
Cottonwood (Poplar) - No - Lemos, Tillek, Igen - Hard - Structure work, flooring, baskets, pulp - A medium-sized to large tree with a maximum height of 30 meters, although this is not often obtained. It has a vigorous growth and is among the most productive of hardwoods. Its wood is white often with a pink or brown tint. It carries a straight grain with a fine texture. It dries quickly and, while it is not strong it is very tough. The wood words easily, but will quickly dull tools, so keep watch to sharpen them often.
Scrub-pine - No - High Reaches, Nabol, Crom, Lemos, Igen - Soft - Panelling, furniture, shelves, jewelry, indoor uses - Growing up to 30 meters in height, this tree produces a lightweight wood. The color ranges from a pale yellow to yellow-brown, even with a pinkish tinge. It has a fine, straight, even grain. It dries quickly but is low in strength. However, it is very easy to work.
Ash - No - Nabol, Lemos, Igen - Hard - Bent work in furniture, instruments, tool handles - The wood is white and has a conspicuous growth ring figure. The trees range in height from 20 to 35 meters. It dries readily and is moderately stable in use. Ash is a strong wood, noted for its toughness. It finishes well and saws easily, but is not used for anything that would go outside unless specially finished.
Rowan (Whitebeam) - No - Lemos, Tillek - Hard - It is used for small items. A great wood for carving, tool handles, even buttons - A well grown Rowan tree reaches a height of 10 to 12 meters. The wood closely resembles that of pear. It has a white to pale pinkish brown color and a fine even texture with a straight grain. It must be dried very slowly, but when done produces a strong and tough wood.
Willow - No - Nabol, Igen - Hard - Used mostly for baskets, wicker chairs, and flooring - It is a tall tree with a broad canopy. The wood is pale and rather featureless. It has a fine grain. More often than not, it is not the actual tree wood which is used, but that of the saplings which grow about it. These dry fast and are extremely flexible.
Deal (Cedar) - No - Lemos, Igen - Soft - Furniture, panelling, decorative planks - A really large tree. It reaches up to 40 to 60 meters above the ground. The wood is a pale brown with well defined growth rings and a pleasant, fragrant smell. It dries quickly, but has a tendency to distort. It is a brittle wood and is not, therefore, a strong wood. However, it takes a finish very well.
*Klah (Yew-like) - Yes - Holdings raise enough of these trees to support local needs - Soft - Stimulant drink, carving, small items - It is moderate in size, only about 10 to 20 meters in height. The wood turns a brown upon drying. It dries rapidly and is as hard as oak, most noted for a resilience and resistance to splitting.
Fellis - Yes - Nerat, Boll, and other temperate-to-tropical regions - Soft - Painkiller, dead trees have found to be a dramatic carving experience of which a master can bring forth from the natural grains intricate beauty - These trees are branchy and small. the trunks are short, gnarled, and twisty. The skinny branches hold that which eases the pain of so many Pernese.
*Name Unknown (Boles?) (Sequoia-like) - Yes - Southern - Soft - Message drums - Giant trees, they are a combination of many saplings growing into one large trunk. They are impervious to fire but tend to rot and hollow out on the inside. The wood is a deep red-brown. It is very straight-grained and light in weight. It dries well and is stable in use. It is easily worked and is noted for its resistence to decay.
Fruit Trees
*Redfruit (Mahogany-like) - Yes - Igen, Southern - Soft - Fruit, carving, furniture, decorative uses - A tree found mostly in tropical climates. The wood is a pale ink to reddish-brown. It has a medium texture and an interlocking grain. It is easy to dry and work.
*Orange Fruit (a.k.a. Orange Tree) - No - Ista, Lemos, Nerat - Hard - A beautiful wood for small furnishings, carvings, or jewelry - The tree is 6 to 10 meters in height. It has a white-orange coloring, and straight grain. The wood is difficult to handle and has a tendency to distort.
Yellow Fruit (a.k.a. Lemon Tree) - No - Ista, Lemos, Nerat - Hard - Fruit, hard to get a hold of for woodcraft purposes. It can be used for cards, fishing poles, drumsticks and other small items - A small tree, only about 5 meters in height. The wood is straight-grained and even in texture. It has a creamy to yellow coloring and is very dense. It is noted for good strength and resilience. It is difficult to handle, but with a lot of work, can be finished to a smooth surface.
Green Fruit (a.k.a. Lime Tree) - No - Temperate, Ista, Lemos - Hard - Fruit, a very good carving wood, some instrument parts, and utensils as it remains free from taint, toys or other small items - The lime tree is a medium to large tree, running on average 20 meters in height. The wood is a pale white, which darkens just a bit upon sunlight exposure to a pale brown. It has a straight grain and fine, uniform texture that is generally featureless. It dries rapidly with little tendency to distort, but is not a very strong wood.
Banana - No - Boll - NA - Fruit - Often confused, the banana tree is not a tree. It has no woody trunk or boughs.
Mango - No - Boll, Nerat - Hard - Fruit, unknown uses to woodcraft. Small portions of this wood are being dried and tested for use - coming from the tree which produces the red-orange Mango fruit. It is found to be about 15 to 21 meters in height.
Pear - No - Temperate, Boll, Igen - Hard - Fruit, it has a limited supply and is used to inlay, jewelry, brush handles, and most notably, carving - The pear tree reaches only the moderate size of 15 meters in height. The wood is a uniform pinkish-brown with a very fine texture and straight or irregular grain. It dries slowly and tends to distort and is difficult to split.
Peach - No - Cultivated, Boll, Nerat - Hard - Fruit, like all fruit woods, it has a limited supply. It is used mostly decoratively for carving, ornamentation, buttons and some other small projects - The trees get to about 5 to 8 meters in height. The wood is a light brown, it has a medium grain.
Apple - No - Cultivated, Nabol, Igen, Lemos - Hard - Fruit, the limited supply of this wood lends to its rare use on Pern. When used, it is mostly found where wood was needed for an intricate carving, shaping, or for tool handles - The tree is only 8 to 10 meters in height. It has a pale to pinkish-brown wood with a fine and even texture. It is slow to dry and tends to split and warp badly. But if gotten through the drying process it is stable, strong, and hard. It is somewhat hard to work and great care must be taken not to tear the surface. It stains and polishes well.
Cherry - No - Temperate, Igen, Lemos, Nerat - Hard - Fruit, a decorative wood, when obtained, it is used for furniture and cabinetwork, as well as some inlay - These trees often reach to a height of 30 meters. The wood is fine-textured and straight-grained, and once dried becomes an almost mahogany red in color. It tends to distort during drying, but if carefully tended becomes strong and stable.
Nut Trees
Walnut - No - Warm temperate regions, Benden - Hard - Nuts, timber: a decorative wood used for cabinet work and furniture, sometimes jewelry - A medium-sized tree. It is found to be between 20 and 30 meters in height. Typically, the wood is a uniform dark purple-brown with straight grains and a medium texture. Sometimes you will find slight variations having wavy grain, or be a more grey-brown in color. Slow to dry, it becomes stable in use, carrying finishes well.
Hazelnut - No - Benden - Hard - Nuts - From the tree which produces hazelnuts.
Pecan - No - Nerat - Hard - Nuts, furniture, instruments, decorative, tool handles - The wood of the peach tree is straight-grained and coarse in texture. Its color is a light yellow-brown. The wood is high in strength and it shrinks somewhat with seasoning.
Wedgenut (Brazil-nut) - No - Nerat, Boll - Hard - Nut, oil - This tree grows to 46 meters in height. It has a long, straight trunk and is a valuable food producer.
Almond - No - Benden - Hard - Nuts, oil - The almond tree runs anywhere from 3 to 10 meters in height. It produces the light brown edible almond nut. The grain can be either straight or twisted, depending on the tree and is yellow-white in color.
Assorted rare and rainforest trees...The colonists brought with them many trees which had to be abandoned in the move North, or were not absolutely necessary for survival and were therefore not protected and cultivated in the first few Passes. You can still find these trees in small isolated groves deep within the Southern forests where they managed to reseed and survive thread until the grub protection had taken hold.
As well, there are many uncatalogued rainforest trees. The woods of these trees are soft as almost all native Pern trees are. Most do not have any known use to the human population beyond providing shade or shelter. Most of the woods are soft and some of the trees provide edibles. Little has been explored about many of the native Southern woods. Few are useful for construction. Do remember that the construction of Cove Hold was in the middle of a stand of fruitwoods, as well the wood used for construction was imported from the North's seasoned stock. This is an example of the many groves which pocket in the southern forests of trees imported with the colonists.
Also noted for the fruit and nutwoods. This wood is used for food production primarily! The woodcrafthall would get only that wood which comes from dead trees culled from the orchards. It would have to be specifically looked for, because the local people would be more likely to use it for burning than for crafting.
Don't forget another important product from the woodcraft...soap! Lye, made from water and hardwood ash, is the main ingredient. The smelly procedure is not often done due to the rareness of hardwoods on Pern. Which leaves the little bars of soap a wonderful and expensive treat.
Works Cited
1. Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, Jody Lynn Nye with Anne McCaffrey, Del Rey, c. 1989
2. The International Book of Wood, Simon and Schuster, c. 1979
3. The White Dragon, Anne McCaffrey, Del Rey, c. 1989
4. Various Encyclopedias...World Book, Britannica, and Collier's
'*' means that no information was found on the wood. The descriptions were stipulated from similiar woods, or noted in the text as what it was cited after.
Note: If 'a.k.a.' appears in parenthesis after a wood name, it is because the common name of the wood was used on Pern. The name in parenthesis is the name of the wood used in industries on Earth, which the descriptions are therefore based from.
Note: As well a thing I found confusing at first, but was clarified upon later research, was the spongewood. This is just another name for a softwood, and not an actual tree in itself.
Credits
Written and Researched by: Craftsecond Qinan
HTML Editting by: Craftmaster Malia
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Last update: June 30, 1997