Wow, Arizona state has a great geochem program. I was in volcanology and igneous petrology but am now teaching community classes at Truckee Meadows Community College. I have been expanding the community field trip programs! (At the end of February I am leading a trip to Death Valley.)

The Petrified National Forest is a beautiful place, somehow though I never manage to get good photos either. Something about the scale maybe? All those petrified trees are fun to see though. Northern Nevada has a lot of petrified wood too, but not as colorful. Ours is mostly black and dark brown but with nice detail in preservation.

I was thinking about the color of the pink agate/chalcedony/silicate labeled petrified wood... It is the correct color for limb casts from Texas Springs, Nevada. Have you seen any of them? (Except that picture really, really doesn't look like a limb cast to me....)

I have some pictures, but they were film produced. I'll see if I can't post some somehow.

I was gifted a few pieces of petrified wood a long time ago - I assume that's what they are? If not please let me know.

This piece has crystals between the bark




This piece looks like bark and growth rings





Last piece has been polished - but looks like the growth rings

Very nice! Yes, they are petrified wood. The quartz crystals tend to form where there were gaps or holes in the wood as it fossilized. (Think geode, but in a log.) That last one has beautiful growth rings.

sumire said:Wow, Arizona state has a great geochem program. I was in volcanology and igneous petrology but am now teaching community classes at Truckee Meadows Community College. I have been expanding the community field trip programs! (At the end of February I am leading a trip to Death Valley.)

The Petrified National Forest is a beautiful place, somehow though I never manage to get good photos either. Something about the scale maybe? All those petrified trees are fun to see though. Northern Nevada has a lot of petrified wood too, but not as colorful. Ours is mostly black and dark brown but with nice detail in preservation.

I was thinking about the color of the pink agate/chalcedony/silicate labeled petrified wood... It is the correct color for limb casts from Texas Springs, Nevada. Have you seen any of them? (Except that picture really, really doesn't look like a limb cast to me....)

You are in a great area for Geology. I did a lot of field work for geothermal well and hot spring sampling in the Long Valley area over the years (and generally throughout Nevada), working with among others the USGS, combining the geothermal development work with volcano monitoring. Death Valley is magnificent, I have not been there in a while, but generally the Eastern side of the Sierras extending into the Basin and Range is a great area for geology field trips.

I have not seen that type of petrified wood, that I am aware of.

Here is what I've found doing numerous Google searches (it kept giving links for cuttings you could buy):

*A label maker
*Plant markers/tags
*Soil moisture monitor
*Small or cute pots
*Tweezers/tongs - Picking up bugs or slugs, placing tiny plants or figurines into position, grabbing dead leaves in tight or hard to reach spaces, or holding onto prickly plants
*Gardening gloves
*Handheld pruning shears
*Handheld trowel
*Handheld rake (could use one of those back scratchers)
*Mesh tape/window screen pieces - Keeps soil from going out bottom of pot. Can also use to keep soil from mixing into any rocks at bottom or decorative rocks on top.
*Spray bottle - Use to gently water or mist plants
*Tiny scoop to use as a shovel for tight places or tiny containers
*Brushes (ones used for makeup or painting) for things like gently patting soil down, brushing pot rim clean of any soil
*Fairy garden items
*Cacti & succulent soil
*Top dressing items to keep soil from shifting during watering, & to keep pot's overall appearance nice & tidy - pea gravel, colorful rock, glass gems, beads, colorful sand, sphagnum moss, etc.

Kathy547 said:I just thought the petrified wood would look interesting amongst cacti or succulents.

All I can say is I wish I was part of your gardening group. I wouldn't part with any of those beautiful treasures as I absolutely love rocks and stones and arrange them in my garden to complement the greenery. When traveling, I grab a couple unusual stones as souvenirs. Some of my favorites are from Delphi, Olympus and the Acropolis in Greece and various places in the UK. Not sure if it's legal or not, but...

I find small petrified wood here, sometimes 4-5" long, but the big chunks of it on the premises were collected by my grandmother who over the years grew some really big piles of rock of all kinds. Very low water requirement , but still hard to weed and keep the beds clean. A wildlife sanctuary which specialized in black widow spiders, scorpions, and assorted snakes mostly. I thought I'd found a big chunk when I saw the one in the photo about halfway up the side of an erosion gully. I couldn't budge it in the red clay which acted like it was set in concrete. I went & got a watering can and an industrial sized screw driver and proceeded to excavate it out of the bank - all 3-4" of it. What you could see was pretty much what you got . With that face of prox 7" in diameter, it's still one of the biggest pieces found here. We like it so it sits in the house catching dust which requires spraying off every so often.

Wow! Gorgeous! Well worth the effort of digging it up.

Wow! That is very pretty!