Petrified palm wood
Fossil
Also called Palm wood, Palmwood, and Palmoxylon
About it
Silicified palm trunks whose cut faces show scattered dots, the plant's vascular bundles, which run as rods along the grain. The state stone of Texas and state fossil of Louisiana; Indonesia supplies much of it.
- Type
- Fossil (plant)
- Group
- Palm wood (plant)
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 6.5–7
- Lustre
- vitreous (glassy), waxy, dull
- Colours
- brown, tan, black, red, grey, cream
- Transparency
- translucent, opaque
- Cleavage and fracture
- none; conchoidal to splintery fracture
- Periods
- Paleogene, Neogene
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.