Redwood Burl

The swollen tissue at the base of some redwood trees is typically known as "burl". Scientifically it is known as a lignotuber, which basically means "swollen wood". All redwood trees have lignotuber tissue but not all have large visible burls. Lignotubers are responsible for vegetative (clonal) reproduction that is common in redwoods. If it weren't for this mode of propagation, the redwood forest would appear far different than it does currently. The second and third - growth redwoods in our coastel forests were generated vegetatively after the 19th and 20th century logging of the original forests. If redwoods were solely dependent on reproduction from seed, their numbers would only be a small fraction of what we see today. There is a growing black market for redwood burl along with many other burls. They are obtained illegally from healthy trees on protected forestland. In some cases, removing burl can kill a tree or, at least, deface it and reduce its reproductive potential. There is nothing wrong with questioning the source of any wood that we buy or, that you may buy from us. If you wish to learn more about redwoods and how you can help protect them go to:http://www.sempervirens.org/doctor.htm. We do keep some redwood burl in stock and from time to time we also have redwood longwood. You basically get two looks with redwood burl, strong eye (pecking) and, swirl with more muscle and less eye.