American elm and slippery elm, two of six species of elms found in North America, are known together as soft elms. Rock, winged, cedar and September elm are known as hard elms. Hard elms are 25 percent heavier, and correspondingly stronger and stiffer.

It is most commonly known as Osage orange, but other names include hedge, hedge-apple, yellow-wood, bowwood, Osage apple, and bodark (from the French bois d’arc, meaning bow wood).

Despite its name, soft maple is a more than adequate species for furniture, flooring, cabinets and other products.

In addition to being a popular species for furniture, American cherry is a good domestic cabinet wood due to its warm red tone and dramatic grain cathedrals.

Aspen, also known as aspen poplar, poplar (especially outside North America), popple, trembling aspen, bigtooth aspen, quaky and a dozen other local names, is a wonderful wood for many use.

Basswood (Tilia americana), also called linden, is a beautiful, fast growing tree reaching heights of 130 feet. It has a straight trunk, with most of the bole limb-free, thereby producing large volumes of clear lumber. The wood is creamy white, low in weight and strength, and without much obvious grain.

Common and plentiful, sweetgum is still not seen in most sawmills and furniture plants.

After oak and maple, yellow poplar is the most important hardwood in our eastern forests.

Red spruce, white spruce, and black spruce make up the eastern spruce family.

Retired rubber trees in plantations become new furniture.