Sunday 20 February 2011

Bog Wood

Yesterday I was gifted a piece of bog wood as a pendant by a very dear friend, it is beautiful.  I have to admit I wasn’t sure what bog wood was so:-

Bog Oak, also known as morta is the preserved remains of a native tree that would have been growing around 400 years before Stone Henge was built. It would have grown in a pollution-free atmosphere, with no artifical fertilisers or pesticides and it would have provided food and shelter for many hundreds of early life-forms.

These great oaks grew between the lakes and swamps of the Neolithic wetlands.  Trees and branches that fell in the lakes were preserved for all times in the anaerobic conditions, in peat bogs.

During the natural preservation process, most of the features of the timber remain intact. Growth rings are clear, as is the texture of the bark and the pattern of the woodgrain.

The timber itself has a very deep colour – almost black which in places takes on rich red, brown and orange hues reflecting the mineral content of the ground it has rested in for the past 5,000 years. 

The bog wood represents the early stages in the fossilisation of wood, with further stages ultimately forming lignite and coal over a period of millions of years.

Tansy
x

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