Originally Posted by
misanthropist
Oh man but it burns like coal when dry! We have a ton of them at our island place; the previous owners were somewhat cultivating them as far as we can tell and they surround our place and in fact cover most of the hilltop we're on.
Strange, weedy wood when wet; reminds me of reeds at similar diameters. Snaps when bent, almost like rhododendron twigs. But you dry it out and boy, it's like ash or dry maple in the stove.
The only real downside for us is that our island can be quite dry in the summer - last year there was 0mm of rain between February and September - and the weird peeling skin turns into bone-dry tinder, blowing around in drifts on an island with no running water. Yeah, end of the summer gets a little nervous.