Tupelo

tupeloTupelo (American White Wood)

Other Names:
Water Tupelo

Uses:
Tupelo is cut principally as lumber for shipping containers, furniture, Cigar or tobacco boxes, pallets, crates, baskets, and floors and platforms that are subject to heavy wear. . It is also used in railway ties and as pulp.

Availability:                                                                                        4%of the total supply of all kinds in southern States.

Description:
Heartwood is light brownish-gray and merges gradually into the lighter colored sapwood, which is generally several inches wide.

Range:
Tupelo grows principally in the coastal regions of the Southeastern U.S. and along the lower Mississippi Valley. About two-thirds of the production of tupelo lumber is from the Southern states. Slightly more than half of this timber is in North Carolina,  Georgia and Louisiana.

Physical Properties:
The wood has fine, uniform texture and interlocking grain. Tupelo wood is rated as moderately heavy (35lbs./cu.ft.), moderately hard and stiff, and moderately high in shock resistance. It has a long fiber for a hardwood, averaging 2.0 mm in length. Because of interlocked grain, tupelo lumber requires slow process in drying.

Specific Gravity: 0.48 (12% M.C.)                                                     Average Weight: 555 KG/CBM (12% M.C.)                                   Modulus of Elasticity: 11308 MPa                                                   Hardness: 3780 N

Working Properties: Machining: 75%                                                                          Nailing: 75%                                                                                  Screwing: 75%                                                                                              Gluing: 50%                                                                                          Finishing: 100%

Solution:
Sapwood is ideal substitute of Hard Maple, Soft Maple. Can be well furnished to Cherry finish so it’s widely used as substitute of Brazil White Wood and color-sorted American Yellow Poplar.