Elanthian Flora Guide/Trees

Elanthian Flora Guide: Trees is an Official GemStone IV Document, and it is protected from editing.

Follow the name link for a description of that tree:

IMT=Icemule Trace, KD=Kharam Dzu, MH=Mist Harbor, PTP=Pinefar, RR=River's Rest, SOL=Solhaven, TI=Ta'Illistim, TV=Ta'Vaalor, WL=Wehnimer's Landing, ZL=Zul Logoth

Trees	Uses	IMT	KD	MH	PTP	RR	SOL	TI	TV	WL	ZL
Acacia	n/a					X
Alder (speckled)	It is believed that the alder has been used as a good treatment for burns and inflamed wounds. The dried bark was also apparently used to improve circulation and staunch hemorrhage.					X	X			X
Apple	The fermenting fruit can also be used for ciders and brewed beverages.					X		X	X	X
Ash	n/a									X
Aspen (quaking)	n/a										X
Banana	n/a					X
Beech (silver)	n/a	X			X			X	X	X
Bergamot	The oil is often used in teas, perfumes, and incense.						X	X	X
Birch	n/a					X		X	X		X
Black Willow	Black willow is occasionally used for lumber, primarily in the construction of inexpensive shields and also shipping cases in sea-trading areas. It doesn't make good firewood, however, burning quickly and without much heat. There is some evidence that would suggest that the pollen can be used for medicinal purposes.					X				X
Canver	n/a		X
Cedar	Cedar wood is noted for its pleasant, pervasive aroma, sometimes used to lined chests and cupboards, or pressed into incense.							X	X	X
Cherry	n/a							X	X	X
Cottonwood	n/a					X		X	X	X
Dogwood	n/a					X		X	X	X
Ebonwood	n/a									X
Elanthia Ironwood	n/a					X				X
Elm	n/a							X	X	X
Fel	The outer hulls were used by early bands of halflings as dyestuff for wool used to knit stockings. The fel is mostly prized for its hardwood, which is peeled for surfacing and used in all sorts of fine wood-crafting. The lumber is a unique dark color, and only ebony wood possesses a deeper shade of black.									X
Fig	n/a					X
Fir	n/a	X				X				X	X
Haon	n/a					X
Hawthorn	Often used during rituals or ceremonies of a magical nature.						X
Hazel	n/a									X
Lasimor	Due to its rarity and required growing conditions, only elven woodworkers have mastered its use.								X
Lemon	n/a					X	X	X	X
Lime	Often used in drinks and cooking.					X	X	X	X
Linden	n/a					X		X	X
Magnolia	n/a		X			X				X
Mahogany	n/a		X			X
Maple	Some varieties of the tree yield a sap that can be boiled into a tasty syrup, used for candies.							X	X	X
Maoral	The maoral is also said to have medicinal values, the sap having long been used to make potions that heal wounds and cure aches.		X			X	X
Mistwood	n/a
Modwir	n/a					X	X			X
Monir (shingle)	n/a									X
Monir (white)	n/a									X
Oak	n/a.					X	X	X	X	X
Olive	n/a					X		X	X
Orange	The fruit can be juiced and used in any number of ways. Considered a healthy source of vitamins.						X	X	X
Peach	n/a					X		X	X
Pear	n/a						X	X	X
Pecan	n/a					X
Pine	n/a	X				X	X	X	X	X
Plum	n/a							X	X
Rosewood	Often used in homes, decoratively.		X
Spinewood	n/a									X
Spruce (blue)	n/a									X	X
Sycamore	n/a									X
Tanik	n/a					X				X
Walnut	n/a					X				X
Willow	n/a					X		X	X	X
Witchwood	Only small weapons are likely to be made from it, and its most common use is in wands and staves. It is most potent when used for spells of subtle destruction and is often cursed.									X
Yew	n/a					X

Descriptions

Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Acacia: Any of various often spiny trees or shrubs having alternate, bipinnately compound leaves or leaves represented by flattened leafstalks and heads or spikes of small flowers. A relative of the pea family. The slightly spice-fragranced flowers can be used in arrangements.

Alder (speckled): The alder is actually a large shrub, a group of stout stems from a common root. These however can grow to quite a height, and can occasionally produce a small tree with a trunk as much as a foot in diameter and 30-40 feet high. It has wrinkled leaves broadly ovate in shape and irregularly toothed. It has purple and yellow male catkins about three inches long, and it bears small cones with round-winged seeds that persist on the tree all winter. Alders flourish over a broad range, from the mountainous areas south of Wehnimer's Landing, extending east and south. The alder has little value as a timber, but is a good choice of kindling and firewood.

Apple: A spreading tree that bears white or pale pink, fragrant flowers in the spring, which mature into fruits. A crisp and sweet treat, sometimes with a tart bite to it. A favorite for pies and some cakes or tarts.

Ash: The ash is a tough, elastic hardwood. It carries keys or winged fruits. The tree has deeply penetrating roots and sours the soil, making it difficult for other vegetation to grow beneath it. Southern specimens of the tree occasionally grow to heroic dimensions, as much as a hundred and seventy-five feet tall and five feet in diameter. It has wide spreading branches and bears compound leaves, usually with seven leaflets, clustered toward the branch ends. It is an ideal choice for use in making weaponry, as well as handles for tools and furniture. The ash comes in two varieties, the more common white ash and the black ash, the latter more often found in remote southern forests. Unlike the white ash, the black ash prefers wetlands, stream borders, and cool swamplands. It is a tall, slender tree, its branches reaching upward, rather than outward as does the white ash. The wood of the black ash can be split quite easily, into thin, tough splints, ideal for the making of baskets. At certain stages of pounding, the layers of the black ash begin to separate at the annual growth rings. The black ash resembles the white ash except that it is taller and more slender. Its compound leaves, of a distinctly dark shade of green, have more leaflets than the white ash, as many as eleven.

Aspen (quaking): Trees with leaves attached by flattened leafstalks so that they flutter readily in the wind. Quaking aspen gets its name because this particular aspect, causing the leaves to shiver with even the slightest breeze. Turns a bright yellow during autumn.

B

Banana: Any of several treelike shrubs having a terminal crown of large, entire leaves and a hanging cluster of fruits. The yellow, sickle-shaped fruits are very tasty.

Beech (silver): A deciduous tree with smooth grey bark, alternate simple leaves, and three-angled nuts enclosed in prickly burs. The nuts will often drop to the ground as the burs split, and can be foraged for a tasty treat

Bergamot: A small tree commercially grown chiefly for its sour citrus fruits, the rinds of which yield an aromatic oil.

Birch: Any of various deciduous trees or shrubs having unisexual flowers in catkins, alternate, simple, toothed leaves, and bark that often peels in thin papery layers.

Black Willow: One of the many species of willows found across Elanthia, the black willow is so-named for its dark, green- black foliage and ebony wood. As with most of the willows, the black willow plays an important role in nature by stabilizing the banks of streams and rivers with its fast-spreading and branching root system. Male and female blossoms on the willows are borne on separate trees. Insects are the most industrious of the pollinators, but the pollen is very fine and readily windborne. The black willow grows along streams and ponds, anywhere there is damp soil. Curiously, many streambed willow bushes are also black willows, since the species takes either tree or bush form. As a tree, it may have a trunk diameter of six feet and its stems may rise as high as 150 feet. Even in the tree form, it usually grows with several main trunks rising from the same root system, as though it had begun at ground level.

C

Canver: The supple canver trees often bend to drape, much like willows, and when planted opposite each other, their crowns can meet and entertwine in a lush green arch over the street. Clumps of pink-throated white flowers gaze cheerfully down from among the branches.

Cedar: An evergreen conifer with stiff needles on short shoots and large erect seed cones with broad deciduous scales.

Cherry: Any of several trees or shrubs native chiefly to temperate regions and having pink or white flowers and small juicy drupes.

Cottonwood: Any of several trees that has triangular leaves and a tuft of cottony hairs on the seeds. Likes to grow along the banks of fresh water sources.

D

Dogwood: A tree bearing small greenish flowers surrounded by four large, showy white or pink bracts that resemble petals.

E

Ebonwood: A hardwood tree with very black heartwood.

Elanthia Ironwood: When ironwood comes to blossom, bees converge on them, making the trees loud as well as fragrant; and in consequence, the honeycombs are full of some of the sweetest honey found in the Lands. The name ironwood refers to the core of the tree, however, the tough inner bark is of a valuable nature as well, having long been used in making cordage and nets. Ironwood is heavy and strong, making it an ideal wood for any weapon that values rock-hard strength, at the expense of added weight. Aside from the hard nature of its wood, the most notable thing about the ironwood is its flower and fruit. The flowers, small and blood red in color, are full of nectar. They grow on a pendant stem that springs from the center of a leaflike wing. That wing, long and slender and a lighter green than the trees true leaves, eventually provides a glider for the seed, and thus are new groves of ironwood started. The large, oval leaves vary from a pale green in the north, to a deeper shade in southern forests. While the ironwood is valued for its products, the complicated business of lumbering it makes it a poor choice when looking for firewood.

Elm: Any of various deciduous trees characteristically having arching or curving branches and serrate leaves with asymmetrical bases. Elms are widely planted as shade trees.

F

Fel: The fel is not really a beautiful tree. It has a sturdy central stalk or trunk, but it tends to be a broad tree. Its leaves are long and have fifteen or more leaflets opposite each other. Its fruits are black, rough-coated nuts enclosed in thick, yellowish-brown husks rich in a very deep black dye. The meat of the nuts is rich, oily, and distinctly flavored.

Fig: An often small, gnarl-branched tree with large, lobed leaves and numerous sweet, pear-shaped, tiny seedlike fruits. A favorite for jams, tarts, cookies and other baked goods, as well as a special treat for birds and raccoons.

Fir: Any of various evergreen trees having single flattened needles and erect cones with deciduous scales.

H

Haon: Haons are particularly handsome trees with their big, smooth boles, smoky-grey bark, wide-spreading branches, and almost luminous leaves. Under the best conditions, they grow a hundred feet tall and have a widely rounded crown. At the base of the sturdy trunk, a haon tends to reach out with big, half-exposed roots for a shallow roothold. It is the bark and the leaves that identify a haon at first sight. The bark almost glows, is at times purplish-grey, and even on old trees, is seldom rough. The leaves are elliptical, short-stemmed, and prominently veined. Each vein ends in a marginal tooth. It is the texture of the leaves that makes them unique. They are almost translucent. In summer, the sun shines through them, but not the heat, making them an ideal shade tree. The haon nuts, something like miniature chestnuts, are borne in a bur with weak spines. They are prized for animal fodder and are rumored to have healing properties.

Hawthorn: Usually thorny trees or shrubs with clusters of white or pinkish flowers and reddish fruits containing a few one-seeded nutlets.

Hazel: The hazel produces a flexible wood, and is a shrub sometimes eight feet high, common in fencerows and thickety growth at the edge of stands of timber. Its leaves are narrowly pointed or heart-shaped, rough above, pale below, and three to five inches long. The hazel blooms in early spring. The hazel is mostly known for its fruit, a small, chestnut-brown nut, almost perfectly spherical, enclosed in a pair of broad, leafy, toothed bracts with many bristles at the base. The nutmeat is sweet.

L

Lasimor: Ranging in height from twenty to eighty feet, the lasimor tree has smooth, slate grey bark with barely discernible darker swirls. Thick, sanguine sap seeps from sporadic areas of the trunk and has a faint scent of tar. The deep red leaves are long and narrow, reminiscent of sword blades. The trunk is an amalgamation of a minimum of three trees grown together, the largest documented being seven. The heartwood is fine grained with narrow striations in varying shades, ranging from grey to yellow to reddish brown. The lasimor can only grow in the temperate, freshwater boggy areas outside of Ta'Vaalor. Due to its rarity and required growing conditions, only elven woodworkers have mastered its use.

Lemon: A spiny, evergreen tree widely cultivated for its yellow, egg-shaped fruit. Bears very fragrant spikey, white blossoms. The fruit is popular for cooking and drinks.

Lime: A spiny evergreen shrub or tree with leathery leaves, fragrant white flowers, and edible fruit.

Linden: In southern forests, the linden tree often provides a carpet of fragrant, golden flowers on the forest floor during spring. The flowers are five-petaled and hang in loose clusters ten to fourteen inches long. They attract swarms of bees, which make a particularly delicious honey from their nectar. The trees grow like weeds, to a height of sixty feet, and are popular for shelterbelts and as ornamentals, though their feathery foliage offers little shade. The wood of the linden is light in hue, soft and supple, making it a good candidate for bows and other products where strength and flexibility are prerequisites. The beanlike seeds in its flattened, four-inch-long pods are said to have medicinal properties.

M

Magnolia: The magnolia tree typically prefers a southern temperate location with cool winters. Both tall and wide in its growth, magnolias make a magnificent shade tree, with its long evergreen leaves appearing a lustrous dark green when viewed from above, and grey or brown when viewed underneath. The flowers are often huge, creamy white, and beautifully fragrant, although some have come in shades of rose, yellow, and purple.

Mahogany: A majestic looking, canopy tree with lustrous dark red tones that produces a sought-after wood, famous for its reddish-yellow to reddish-brown tones. Mahogany is an old growth tree that mainly grows in subtropical climates. Its glossy jade green leaves make the young offshoots a novel miniature houseplant. When in bloom, small white flowers give way to showy fruit capsules.

Maple: Any of numerous deciduous trees or shrubs of the temperate zone, having opposite, usually palmate leaves and long-winged fruits borne in pairs.

Maoral: The huge, tropical maoral is the only truly deciduous conifer. It sheds all its needles every autumn. The needles are only about an inch long. In spring they are a bright golden-yellow-green, in summer a warm blue-green, darker than the modwirs, and rich golden tan in the autumn. In spring, just before the new needles appear, the maorals are aglow with blossoms, the male flowers a pure shade of white, the females bright red with green tips, all of them very small. The female flowers mature into tiny cones, no more than three-quarters of an inch long, which stay on the tree all winter, shedding seeds. Maoral grows very tall and slender, sometimes as much as two hundred feet high with a trunk diameter of six feet. The tree is of slow growth, taking as long as two hundred and fifty years to reach a trunk diameter of twenty inches. Maorals prefer damp soil and often grow at the edges of swamps, but can sometimes be found well up on hillsides as long as the climate is moderate. They are essentially a tropical tree. Maoral wood is heavy and durable, and of a distinct reddish color. Maoral wood tends to be expensive, due the to slow growth of the tree. The Sylvans have been known to use maoral rootlets to sew haon bark together and make light, airy, temporary dwellings.

Mistwood: Related to Elanthia Ironwood, this branch of the family suffers from a parasitic disease that turns the trunk and wood core a pale blond hue. Unsuitable for use in armor or weapons, as over time it can warp and splinter as it dries out, the tree is still sought for commercial use in homes and other establishments. Treated with a sealant and polished with oils, the grain of the word is highly decorative.

Modwir: Modwir needles have a soft, almost fuzzy appearance from a distance, with foliage bunched toward the ends of twigs so that the overall texture might best be described as clumpy. It tends to send out five branches a year in a whorl around its central stem. The upper branches tend t arch strongly upward, spaced widely enough apart on older trees so that each branch can be distinguished from a distance. Its cones are five or six inches long, narrowly cylindrical and chocolate brown in color. They remain closed and green the first year, ripen, turn brown, relax their scales and release seeds the second year. The modwir is relatively swift of growth. A seedling will reach a height of a hundred feet and a trunk diameter of thirty to fifty inches in thirty years. The mature bark is scaly grey with irregular but generally vertical grooves, often marked with white streaks of gum of resin from broken branches. The wood has long been prized for ship-building.

Monir (shingle): One of the large monir genus, the shingle monir is a handsome tree, towering to heights of 80 feet and more. The rough and furrowed bark and broad, rounded crown are notable monir characteristics, but the leaves are lance-shaped instead of the more prevalent round-lobed or deeply-toothed monir leaves. The name "shingle monir" refers to the wide of use of this tree's light brown wood in shingle-making. Hardly a cabin or rustic homestead in the wild lands to the east was built without being finished off with thin slabs of shingle monir. Shingle monir thrives in both dry upland and moist riverbank environments. Its acorns are small, about half an inch long and provide important fuel for wildlife.

Monir (white): The monir is considered to be one of the toughest, most durable of all the common forest trees. The Baronies built ships of monir, and on land, monir wood has provided stout timbers for houses, barns, bridges and other structures. White monir grow to tremendous size, with a spread of more than two hundred to three hundred feet and a trunk of wide circumference. It also grows as a bush at altitudes of four thousand feet or more in the northern traces. A beautiful tree, when its leaves first burst from the bud in the spring, they clothe the white monir with a mist of red that slowly turns to pink before the true green of the leaves. In the autumn, the foliage turns a vivid red-violet, the color of Barony wine, then fades to various shades of gold. The white monir's acorns, maturing the first year, are choice food for squirrels and birds. When they fall and come into contact with the soil, they soon germinate and thrust roots into the ground before hard frost. Those acorns can be eaten raw, but are sweeter if they are boiled or roasted first.

O

Oak: In the essential forest, the oak is the only tree to rival the monir in stature and beauty. The word "door" comes from an ancient dialect wherein "duir" was the word for solidity, protection and the oak tree. The oak stands majestically with great, reaching branches and an even more impressive root system. The oak's growth is slow but sure, and the trees survive for decades and even sometimes centuries. Oaks produce a great quantity of acorns and in autumn, the foliage turns a rich red. The leaves tend to cling to the branches all winter. The timber of the oak tree has many uses, everything from building dwellings to barrels in which wine and beer is aged.

Olive: An evergreen tree having fragrant white flowers, usually lance-shaped leathery leaves, and edible drupes. When the fruits are cured or brined, they make a nice snack.

Orange: An evergreen tree widely cultivated in warm regions, and having fragrant white flowers and round fruit with a yellowish or reddish rind and a sectioned, pulpy interior.

P

Peach: A small tree widely cultivated throughout temperate regions, bearing pink flowers and fuzzy-coated, edible fruit. Often sliced and put in pies or tarts, or eaten fresh off the tree.

Pear: A widely cultivated tree in the rose family, having glossy leaves, white flowers grouped in a corymb, and edible fruit. Also popular for pies and tarts, as well as eaten fresh.

Pecan: A deciduous tree having deeply furrowed bark, pinnately compound leaves, and edible nuts.

Pine: Various evergreen trees having fascicles of needle-shaped leaves and producing woody, seed-bearing cones. These trees are widely cultivated for ornament and shade and for their timber and resinous sap, which yields turpentine and pine tar. Many of the cones bear edible fruits called pinenuts, which can often be foraged when the cones have fallen to the ground. You might even be lucky enough to find a cone or needles in your search.

Plum: Any of several shrubs or small trees bearing smooth-skinned, fleshy, edible fruit with a single hard-shelled stone that encloses the seed.

R

Rosewood: A tropical or semitropical leguminous tree with a hard reddish or dark wood with a strongly defined grain.

S

Spinewood: Named for the small, round, sectioned trunks that resemble a spine, these bent, low, shrubby trees love a damp environment. Found growing along the banks of creeks and rivers, and sometimes right down into the shallow water, it maintains lush foliage most of the year. The spring offers a profusion of short-lived, pale pink flowers that appear shortly after the first warm spell, heralding the end of winter.

Spruce (blue): Any of various coniferous evergreen trees with needlelike foliage, drooping cones, and soft wood often used for paper pulp. The blue spruce is called such due to the frosted blue hue of the needles.

Sycamore: A deciduous tree having palmately lobed leaves, ball-like, nodding, hairy fruit clusters, and bark that flakes off in large colorful patches.

T

Tanik: The blue tanik is thought to have originally come from the legendary Great Forest. Its limbs curve downward, then up, and its twigs hang pendulously. The needles curve upward, and grow to a length of eight to ten inches. The cones are large and in spring, shed powdery, yellow pollen literally by the cupful. Normally the tree grows to heights close to a hundred feet, however, there are legends that tell of taniks reaching truly gargantuan proportions within the great unexplored southern forests. The tanik is prized in the craft of papermaking. The crisp, long-lasting parchment produced from this conifer are unequalled.

W

Walnut: A deciduous tree featuring pinnately compound leaves and a round, sticky outer fruit wall that encloses a nutlike stone with an edible seed.

Willow: A graceful tree with long branches and distinctive leaves composed of many small leaflets attached to an extremely long stem. Often found along fresh source waterways and in cultivated park-like settings. A good shade tree.

Witchwood: A highly magical wood taken from a twisted bush which grows only in graveyards.

Y

Yew: It is said, the easiest place to find the yew tree is within the ancient cemeteries. In truth, any particular yew may well be far older than the cemetery that surrounds it. Yews have a tremendous capacity for longevity. Its branches grow down into the ground to form new stems, which grow to become trunks of separate but linked growth. In time, the central trunk becomes old and the insides decay, but a new tree grows within the spongy mass of the old, and eventually, cannot be distinguished from the original. It is from this that the yew has come to symbolize great age, rebirth and reincarnation. The yew produces a close-grained, elastic wood that is similar to maple.