Name/Title
Pepper TreeEntry/Object ID
05.58.19(B)Description
Description: Genus: Schinoxylon
Common name: Pepper tree
Age: Eocene
Location data: Blue Forest, Wyoming USA
Assemblage Zone: calcareous sediments
Chemical Composition: Si O2
Crystal System: Hexagonal
Description: Family: Palmae
Genus: Palmoxylon
Common name: Palm stems cluster of 4
Age: Eocene
Location data: Green River Formation, Eden Valley, Wyoming USA
Description: This is one of four limbcast (B) from Delmars Collection: colored: outer is a chalky tanish-beige, inner cast shows a clear grey-blue and black agate along with some beige segments.
The original description by Delmar: Five pieces of limbcasts after bamboo, from Wyoming. Polished ends show black and beige wood in grey agate (fortified in most outer cast is in beige and brown). Delmar estimated these pieces to be 200 million years old (Jurassic Period)
The Green River Formation is a Eocene geologic formation that has recorded the sedimentation in a series of intermountain lakes environments created during the uplift of the Rocky Mountains by the Sevier (in the west) and Laramide orogenys
Type of Fossils Present: Plants
Fracture: conchoidal
Grain Size: Fine
Hardness: 7 Quartz
Lithofacies: volcanic ash / lake seds.
Luster: Glassy
Occurrence: Silicified wood, which is the fossilization and opalization of organic woody matter by the deposition of SiO2 in a anaerobic environment to prevent decay. This means that the wood must somehow be buried in an oxygen free enviroment, possibly in the silt-laden river or the bottom of a lake or buried by volcanic ash or related volcanic mudflow. The organic material in the wood is then replaced by silica (SiO2), other minerals determined its colors.
Pressure: Low-Moderate
Rock Color: Medium
Rock Origin: Post-depositional
Rock Type: Sedimentary
Specific Gravity: 2.6
Surface Process: Not apparent
Streak: white
Temperature: Low
Texture: Mircrocrystalline
Variety: Petrified woods here are hydrous microcrystalline variety of quartz that can be generally termed as chalcedony or opalized.Collection
Petrified Wood CollectionAcquisition
Accession
05.58Source or Donor
Petrified Wood CollectionAcquisition Method
DonationOther Names and Numbers
Other Number
Old Number: 78.61.100; Other Number: 2005.58.19(B)Dimensions
Width
1 inDepth
2-1/2 inLength
1 inDimension Notes
Dimension taken at widest pointsLocation
Location
Display Case
PW-8Room
Petrified Wood RoomBuilding
Crater Rock MuseumCategory
ExhibitDate
May 22, 2025Notes
Location updateLocation
Shelf
Top far right, Top far rightWall
EastRoom
Petrified WoodBuilding
Mentzer Hall: Petrified Wood RoomCategory
Permanent
