[IAWA Forum] Durability of alder

From: "Thomas Nilsson" <Thomas.Nilsson@trv.slu.se>
Subject: [IAWA Forum] Durability of alder
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:30:57 +0100 (CET)

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1) Alder (Alnus incana) has a widespread reputation of being exceptionally
durable under water. Is there any scientific evidence for this? Samples of
waterlogged alder studied here have been just as rotten as birch and
beech. Alder is easy to hollow out for making water pipes or drain pumps
in ancient ships and was therefore used under more or less waterlogged
conditions. Most timbers are reasonably durable under waterlogged
condition, due to the fact that the destructive white and brown rot fungi
are absent. The slow decay by bacteria and soft rot takes a long time to
become evident. Therefore, the waterlogged alder appeared to be durable
compared to alder wood in terrestrial situations. One may guess that other
timbers were not tried as references.
2) Does anyone know anything about the iron content of bog oaks?

Thomas Nilsson
Faculty of Forest Sciences
Swed Univ Agric Sciences
c/o SP Trätek
Box 5609
S-114 86 Stockholm
Sweden
thomas.nilsson@trv.slu.se
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