The Tell-Tale Heart:
Some Tall Tales of Heart Pine
Alex C. Wiedenhoeft,
Botanist
Center for Wood Anatomy
Research, Forest Products
Laboratory
Or…
Heart pine? Prove it.
Or…
Heart pine? Define it, then
prove it.
Or…
Toward a scientifically (and
legally) defensible definition of
heart pine
Why do we need a
defensible definition?
• Customer disputes
• Science says that some of the
operating definitions are not
defensible
• Pre-emptive self-regulation
can be a marketing tool
Edgar Allen Poe:
The Tell-Tale Heart
• A man murders his neighbor and
conceals the body beneath a wood
floor
• He flaunts the perfection of his
concealment by speaking with the
police in the very room where the
corpse is hidden
• A paroxysm of guilt, spurred by the
imagined sound of the victim’s
beating heart, drives him to
confess
The Tell-Tale Heart and
Heart Pine
• A man murders his
neighbor and conceals
the body beneath a
wood floor
• He flaunts the
perfection of his
concealment by
speaking with the police
in the very room where
the corpse is hidden
• A paroxysm of guilt,
spurred by the
imagined sound of the
victim’s beating heart,
drives him to confess
• Proposed sale of socalled heart pine
• Positive identification
impossible
• Confession not likely,
but when asked I will
have to play the role of
confessor
Edgar Allen Poe:
Not A Cheerful Fellow
• A parable for Heart Pine purveyors?
Overview
• Wood identification
• In general
• Of deconstructed materials
• “Heart Pine”
• Definitions
• Identification
Wood Identification
(ID)
• Scientific wood identification
depends on recognition of patterns
of cells, mostly under the
microscope
• Generally accurate at the generic
rather than specific level (e.g.
Betula - birch, rather than B. nigra
- river birch)
Informal wood
identification systems
• Scratch and Sniff
• Boy Scout Wood ID: Pine or Oak
• My less confident version as a
neophyte: “Pine vs. probably not
pine”
• Single Trait Utilization Protocol ID
• Usually perpetrated over the phone…
Formal wood
identification systems
•
•
•
Reference Wood Collection
University Course
Books: Bruce Hoadley Identifying Wood; Panshin &
deZeeuw - Textbook of Wood
Technology; and lesser texts
• Computer programs: InsideWood,
Delta, CSIROID, Guess
• Others too numerous and of little
use to list
Pattern recognition and
identification
• Human identification
• Twins
• Careful observation
• Specific characters
• Trial, error
• Pattern recognition
• Automatic use of
characters
• Acquaintances
•
•
•
Bird identification
Wood identification
All depend on pattern
recognition
Scientific Wood ID
• Correlative observation
• Look with a lens
• Relate that to the microscope
• Find and understand technical,
microscopic anatomical characters
• Compare to reference specimens
• This is how scientific wood identification
is done
Macroscopic view
Macroscopic view
Correlative Observation
This is the same wood (red oak,
Quercus sp.), at three different
magnifications
Wood ID of
Deconstructed Materials
• Common construction species
• Mostly softwoods
• Not easy to ID correctly without
microscope
• Relatively few hardwoods
• Generally easy with a hand lens
• Assumption of antiquity not always
sound
• Color, smell, general appearance
inconstant
Wood ID of
Deconstructed Materials
(cont’d)
• Geographic location not always
indicative of origin of wood:
• Proximity to waterways
• Built after completion of Transcontinental railroad
• Dubious historical records renovations, additions
Components of a
definition for heart pine
•
•
•
•
Species identification
Heartwood vs. sapwood
Maturity of tree (‘old growth’)
Time since harvest (‘antique’)
Species identification
and scientific names
All pines are in the genus Pinus
Longleaf pine, and only longleaf
pine, is Pinus palustris - this is the
species name
• Longleaf pine belongs to the
southern yellow pine group, based
on its identifiable wood anatomy
• I would record it as Pinus sp.,
southern yellow pine group
•
•
Heartwood vs. sapwood
• Differences:
• Extractives
• Relative
position in tree
• Not always
measurable
• Anatomically
equivalent
Maturity of tree and
time since harvest
•
•
•
•
•
‘Old growth’
Mature
Diameter
Rings per inch
Recently-cut
mature tree
• Antique vs.
antiqued?
Conventional wisdom in
identifying longleaf
• Density (Basic specific gravity)
• Longleaf
• Pond
• Loblolly
• Pitch
• Shortleaf
(0.49) 0.54 (0.59)
(0.46) 0.51 (0.56)
(0.42) 0.47 (0.52)
(0.42) 0.47 (0.52)
(0.42) 0.47 (0.52)
• Overlap renders the character
useless
Some definitions of
Heart Pine
1) Any softwood
2) The heartwood of any
softwood
3) Any pine
4) The heartwood of any pine
5) Any southern yellow pine
6) The heartwood of any
southern yellow pine
Some definitions of
Heart Pine
cont’d
7. Any longleaf pine
8. The heartwood of longleaf pine
9. Any antique southern yellow pine
10. The heartwood of any antique
southern yellow pine*
11. Any antique longleaf pine
12. The heartwood of antique
longleaf pine
Take-home message:
• Longleaf pine is not
scientifically separable from
the other southern yellow
pines
• This means that no one can
prove that they have longleaf
pine, only that they have a
southern yellow pine
Take-home message:
• Thus, an operating definition,
to be scientifically and legally
defensible, would ideally
incorporate what can be
proved
• Anything else will leave
purveyors of heart pine open
to potential disputes
Questions and
Discussion