# Philippine woods



## Mr. Peet (Mar 2, 2021)

@FranklinWorkshops 

So Larry sent me several boxes of samples back in August of 2019. A few spent time in the freezer as a bug deterant. Needed the space in the freezer last fall for a 1/4 of beef. Boxes found their way into the dinning room (room lacks a table and chairs) and have been claimed by the cat as climbing property. With the nasty wind and bitter cold, I started to catalog the odd sized samples. The day had a few other distractions, so I only got 30 done of a few hundred....

Of the 30 samples, 7 still have the same Latin binomial, 8 names are unresolved, 9 are in a new genera, 3 are in a new family. Took a bit of time tracking these down. One of the samples is on the critically endangered list. Of the 30 samples, 25 look like great woods to work. Will post some pictures when the sun returns and I have time. _Allaeanthus glaber_ (_Broussonetia luzonica_) was absolutely beautiful. Maybe Byron can hook us up with some...

@Byron Barker

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## Byron Barker (Mar 2, 2021)

Mr. Peet said:


> @FranklinWorkshops
> 
> So Larry sent me several boxes of samples back in August of 2019. A few spent time in the freezer as a bug deterant. Needed the space in the freezer last fall for a 1/4 of beef. Boxes found their way into the dinning room (room lacks a table and chairs) and have been claimed by the cat as climbing property. With the nasty wind and bitter cold, I started to catalog the odd sized samples. The day had a few other distractions, so I only got 30 done of a few hundred....
> 
> ...


I can try! Not much time the next few weeks, but I'll look into it more. What I'm finding just now is pretty sparse. It's related to paper mulberry? The research I am seeing isn't showing that exact species in Taiwan, but related species.

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## Byron Barker (Mar 2, 2021)

Allaeanthus luzonicus - Useful Tropical Plants







tropical.theferns.info


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## Karl_TN (Mar 2, 2021)

Looking forward to those pics after you get through drooling on them.

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## FranklinWorkshops (Mar 2, 2021)

Mr. Peet said:


> @FranklinWorkshops
> 
> So Larry sent me several boxes of samples back in August of 2019. A few spent time in the freezer as a bug deterant. Needed the space in the freezer last fall for a 1/4 of beef. Boxes found their way into the dinning room (room lacks a table and chairs) and have been claimed by the cat as climbing property. With the nasty wind and bitter cold, I started to catalog the odd sized samples. The day had a few other distractions, so I only got 30 done of a few hundred....
> 
> ...


Mark, somewhere in those boxes I sent are some reference books that the professor did on his collection. Hopefully you found those and they are helpful to you. As you know, these samples were from his work to catalog the woods of the Phiippines over 100 years ago for the government. I bet you will find a lot of interesting samples in the 300 to 400 I sent you. Have fun.

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## Mr. Peet (Mar 3, 2021)

Karl_TN said:


> Looking forward to those pics after you get through drooling on them.



Gee Karl, I'm better than that. Might have to get up a few times and wipe the floor and maybe my chin, but the samples are well respected....

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## Mr. Peet (Mar 3, 2021)

FranklinWorkshops said:


> Mark, somewhere in those boxes I sent are some reference books that the professor did on his collection. Hopefully you found those and they are helpful to you. As you know, these samples were from his work to catalog the woods of the Phiippines over 100 years ago for the government. I bet you will find a lot of interesting samples in the 300 to 400 I sent you. Have fun.



Thanks again Larry. Yes, there is paperwork. I'm trying to cataloge a short list reflecting the naming label on each sample to have an electronic copy as well.

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## Karl_TN (Mar 3, 2021)

I tried to google _Allaeanthus glaber in order to see this wonderful wood, but _surprised how little information is available on the wood itself.

What is the back story behind the professor‘s collection? Sorry if I missed a post.


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 3, 2021)

Karl_TN said:


> I tried to google _Allaeanthus glaber in order to see this wonderful wood, but _surprised how little information is available on the wood itself.
> 
> What is the back story behind the professor‘s collection? Sorry if I missed a post.


Have not got there yet...There is really very little found on the web. Blows my mind being how nice some of these are....

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## Arn213 (Mar 3, 2021)

Thank you Marc for actually having a “country” category on wood species to be identified! We should have something like this for every country that is a running list that people can add to in years to come. It would just be easier to find on a search as long as you have proper tags.

I should be able to contribute a little to this. I was there many moons ago. I have visited a lot of the furniture stores and guitar building facilities in Metro Manila, the main city. If you want to see some of the trees these species comes from, you have to literally go to different islands as there are 7,461 of them. The culture also have been colonized (Spain) and had many influences from different countries like Spain, US, Malaysia, Indonesia, Middle East to name a few. So there are trees planted that is not indigenous to the country. You just don’t see this in the tree species as well as it is weaves into the culture, food, architecture, music, history and language (many dialects). As an Asian country, there are no characters used- they are all western alphabet system. So if you are English speaking and you go there to visit or stay- the language is mix between Tagalog and English. The menus are in English for the most parts. 

I have a log here which is the prized species in the Philippines and it is now endangered. When I was there I saw solid form of these as dining room and living room sets! This is called true “Kamagong”. How I got it- well a former service man was there in the 1980’s and they were allowed to freight back anything to the US. So this wood a lot of people will sell you falsify species because it has pattern and color like macassar ebony (it grows there too). I have some old Filipino swords with handle made out of this species. 

Looking forward to this show Marc......

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## FranklinWorkshops (Mar 3, 2021)

Karl_TN said:


> I tried to google _Allaeanthus glaber in order to see this wonderful wood, but _surprised how little information is available on the wood itself.
> 
> What is the back story behind the professor‘s collection? Sorry if I missed a post.


I don't know all the history but many years ago, I sold some lumber to a guy and we became friends. In the course of the conversation he mentioned he had a collection of wood samples that had come down through his family (I think his grandfather was the collector). He had no use for the collection so I traded him some lumber for it, figuring it would be interesting. After reading the reference books that came with the samples, I learned that this professor had been hired by the government to survey the trees in the Philippines and prepare a comprehensive report on their economic possibilities. The Philippines were under USA control at that time beginning in 1899. Economic development was the reason for the survey. So these samples that Mark has came from this professors private collection. As Mark remembers, I had offered it to the International Wood Collectors Society but they referred me to a guy at Penn State. I exchanged notes with that guy but he had just received another huge collection and really didn't have time for mine. So I gave them to Mark.

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## Gonzalodqa (Mar 3, 2021)

Arn213 said:


> Thank you Marc for actually having a “country” category on wood species to be identified! We should have something like this for every country that is a running list that people can add to in years to come. It would just be easier to find on a search as long as you have proper tags.
> 
> I should be able to contribute a little to this. I was there many moons ago. I have family there. I have visited a lot of the furniture stores and guitar building facilities in Metro Manila, the main city. If you want to see some of the trees these species comes from, you have to literally go to different islands as there are 7,461 of them. The culture also have been colonized (Spain) and had many influences from different countries like Spain, US, Malaysia, Indonesia, Middle East to name a few. So there are trees planted that is not indigenous to the country. You just don’t see this in the tree species as well as it is weaves into the culture, food, architecture, music, history and language (many dialects). As an Asian country, there are no characters used- they are all western alphabet system. So if you are English speaking and you go there to visit or stay- the language is mix between Tagalog and English. The menus are in English for the most parts.
> 
> ...


Isn’t kamagong a type of ebony (Diospyros)?


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 3, 2021)

Gonzalodqa said:


> Isn’t kamagong a type of ebony (Diospyros)?


Kamagong is a common name for :




and d. blancoi

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## Arn213 (Mar 3, 2021)

Yes to both post 12 & 13. The other common name for it in the Philippines is “mabolo” (that is the actual fruit from the tree).


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## Byron Barker (Mar 3, 2021)

Mr. Peet said:


> @FranklinWorkshops
> 
> So Larry sent me several boxes of samples back in August of 2019. A few spent time in the freezer as a bug deterant. Needed the space in the freezer last fall for a 1/4 of beef. Boxes found their way into the dinning room (room lacks a table and chairs) and have been claimed by the cat as climbing property. With the nasty wind and bitter cold, I started to catalog the odd sized samples. The day had a few other distractions, so I only got 30 done of a few hundred....
> 
> ...


Sorry, looked into it and recent research trying to differentiate the species of Broussonetia found in Taiwan and there is any Broussonetia luzonic in Taiwan that I can see. We have Broussonetia kazinoki. I've got a bunch on the road up to my land, but it is hard to tell apart from common paper mulberry unless unless it is fruiting. I'll cut some next time I see fruit on it though soon. It's super obvious. Maybe it has nice wood too, but paper mulberry certainly doesn't! 






TaiBIF :: Dataset::search







portal.taibif.tw

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## Jonkou (Mar 4, 2021)

Following with great interest having spent lots of time working in the PI. Familiar with the area the two pictured samples come from and can tell you within an hours drive from Zambo your in uncharted and undisturbed territory. It’s a very special collection, would think the botany scientific community of PI would be very interested in it.


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## Karl_TN (Mar 4, 2021)

As a collector, would fading/torn labels be replaced or left on for historical reasons?


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 4, 2021)

Jonkou said:


> Following with great interest having spent lots of time working in the PI. Familiar with the area the two pictured samples come from and can tell you within an hours drive from Zambo your in uncharted and undisturbed territory. It’s a very special collection, would think the botany scientific community of PI would be very interested in it.



Agree, I had not reached out to any in the Philippine science community yet. I have noticed that many of the samples have names that are unresolved and have been so for decades. I would guess that some of the unresolved are actually individual species and that others likely hybrids. Goes back to the fighting of the lumpers and dividers. Either way, should be fun and challenging.


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 4, 2021)

Karl_TN said:


> As a collector, would fading/torn labels be replaced or left on for historical reasons?


Not sure for me. Many would photograph, then type up new cards on acid free paper to retain the old information. Since each sample is imprint stamped with an ID number and collector initials, the new cards could be filed separate. I think they were glued on the back for storage and travel ease, likewise for the paper ID labels on the other side. Only a few have the have the information papers on the back. Don't think I showed them so I just rambled on when you were likely just talking about the name ID.


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## Nature Man (Aug 13, 2021)

Mr. Peet said:


> Not sure for me. Many would photograph, then type up new cards on acid free paper to retain the old information. Since each sample is imprint stamped with an ID number and collector initials, the new cards could be filed separate. I think they were glued on the back for storage and travel ease, likewise for the paper ID labels on the other side. Only a few have the have the information papers on the back. Don't think I showed them so I just rambled on when you were likely just talking about the name ID.


Any updates on your efforts to go through this most fascinating collection? Chuck

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## Mr. Peet (Aug 17, 2021)

Nature Man said:


> Any updates on your efforts to go through this most fascinating collection? Chuck


No, spare time has not been available for wood in some time. Sorry.

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