Replies

1. 
   jonsherryl | Jun 10, 2002 06:43pm | #1

   Sergio, I don't know what podocarp you have. This genus (Podocarpus) contains approximately 70 species, with about three quarters of them native to southern Asia and Africa. The rest are spread throughout Latin America, from Chile to the West Indies. Because of Florida's climate, a lot of species have been introduced down there...so you could be dealing with just about any of them.

   The podocarp family (Podocarpaceae) belongs to the gymnosperms, so it's technically a softwood. Most botanists suspect it is a close relative of the yews, but either way it is an ancient family. The wood is relatively unknown in North America, since its primary uses compete with those of the pines and we have a plentiful domestic supply of the latter. The podocarps are abundant in the Southern Hemisphere and are important construction timbers in their native markets. Most of them produce rather soft woods, similar in density to our white pines, but a few produce woods almost as dense as Douglas-fir. Virtually all of them though, are very fine textured, yellow to creamy white in color and somewhat bland figured, with little contrast between earlywood and latewood. Because of its fine and uniform texture, podocarp has very good shaping characteristics, probably superior to the best of our white pines and certainly much better than any of our yellow pines...so it's definitely a wood worth salvaging, if you can.

   ...And by the way, I'm impressed with your cool. Most Portugese socker fans would have torn southern Florida apart by now.