What is the most flammable wood?

Answer 1

There might be many candidates for the title of most flammable wood. That makes this question difficult (if not impossible) to answer. But let's investigate and see what we can learn.

Certainly the higher the water content of a piece of wood, the less flammable that wood is. But there are situations with many woods where an investigator can find a piece with a lot of resin in it. Another term for resin is tree sap. That piece of wood with sap in it can really take off and burn, as that's because the resin is flammable. Resin is actually a hydrocarbon secretion of trees, and it is composed primarily of volatile terpenes. The most volatile wood is a dry one with a good deal of sap in it, and arguablly the most "sappy" tree is a fir tree of some sort.

There are some other variables that might be considered. We're probably talking about untreated wood, so let's leave out wood treatments. The density of wood will have an effect on its flammability, and if you think about it, you can see why. You can set a dry block of balsa wood afire with a match, buy you'd never be able to get a wet block of oak to start burning. Not even with a box of matches.