Tulip Popular

[arj]

I`m cutting Tulip popular for construction lumber. It looks like the coat of many colors, blue purple yellow green dark brown almost black. What causes this, and does it cause structual damage? If this weekens the wood I want to warn my customer
                     Thanks  arj

[mhasel]

I can't speak for building codes but we have always used popular right off the mill and occasionally we will hit a log like you mentioned and haven't noticed any structural defects in strength. I think my dad has always said that a fungus caused it and that it is highly sought after overseas but we never confirmed this, maybe someone else can shed some light.

Mike

[Tracy]

Yellow Popular and Magnolia both can have the colors you spoke of. They are very much alike and I have been told by a wood dealer that they are mixed and both are sold as Popular. The older the tree the more of it is there it seems. I have not seen any ill effects other than it might not be the color you want if the piece isn't to be painted.The heart is sopposed to be greenish and I've been told that its a bacteria of fungus that gives the other colors at times. Some people really like it including me. The wood is stable and easy to dry and used for mill work (mouldings) and building cabnits either as the primary wood (mostly painted sometimes stained) and a lot as seconary wood in cabnit construction because it is stable and easy to work.

[Ron Wenrich]

The biggest cause is prior logging damage.  Anytime you have an opening in the wood, it allows the bacteria in.  I heard the purple was caused by excess potassium in the soil.  Not sure if that theory hasn't changed.

Some guys will take it in grade lumber, others won't.  A lot depends on the finish.  

[Frickman]

arj, The color doesn't affect the stregth of the wood unless you get a real smelly, stinky log. We've cut a few that had some kind of fungus in the wood that had entered through a wound. You could smell that wood a hundred feet away. We air dried it to see what would happen and the wood seemed to fall apart with alot of shake, like the fibers didn't hold on to each other. We get alot of mineral stain from trees that grew alongside mineral stained red oak trees. Like Ron said, alot of places won't take mineral stained poplar. We have some specialty markets that require it though. It all depends on what the customer wants.