Petrified wood or also called Petrified Wood or fossil wood is found in several places in the world. But what is it? Is it real wood? On this page you will find everything about the origin of petrified wood.

What is petrified wood?

Petrified wood can best be described as a fossil imprint of a tree or, in the case of a palm tree, a plant. As with dinosaur bones that are found, it is not actually the material itself, but a fossil imprint of it.

The origin of petrified wood

As mentioned above, petrified wood is a fossil imprint of the tree or plant. The process of petrifying or fossilizing can take several million years.
The petrification of a tree or plant takes place in an enclosed environment. Often this is under, for example, mud or volcanic ash, also called sediment. The creation of petrified wood happens because the tree or plant slowly decays and water with minerals takes its place. Because the tree is under the sediment, this decay happens many times slower than normal. Quartz is generally the mineral that provides the petrification. In the case of volcanic activity, such as in Indonesia, this quartz largely comes from the volcanic ash. This quartz dissolves in the hot, thermal water and slowly takes the place of the tree. So you actually have a mineralized imprint of the place where the tree or plant was.

Watch our video about the origin of petrified wood

Examples of petrified wood products

What can you still see of the tree in petrified wood?

In the petrified wood you can actually still see very detailed everything from the tree, but also a lot of extra. For example, you can often still see the annual rings of trees and the capillaries of the palm tree. We also often see the structure of the bark clearly. During the petrification process, minerals take the place of the tree, allowing you to see the details of the tree.
Some hollow spaces in the tree are filled with quartz and silica or other minerals, so you can see that a tree was already dead or that bacteria were working to break down the tree before the process started.

What colors of petrified wood are there?

Petrified wood comes in many different colors. It is often thought that this has to do with the type of wood that has been petrified, but this is not less true. The colors of petrified wood come from the minerals that have made the imprint of the tree. As mentioned earlier, quarter generally takes care of the petrification. This mineral simply connects with other minerals, creating colors. Common colors are black, green/blue, red, brown and white.

What makes petrified wood product unique?

With our petrified wood products you really get a special piece at home. No product is identical. Even if you put a series of discs next to each other, you can see on the outside that it was 1 branch or trunk. Yet they never look quite the same.
In addition, you bring a piece of history into your home and you always have a good story to go with your coffee. As mentioned earlier, the petrified wood is at least 50 million years old. You can also see many details of the tree itself due to the steady petrification process.

Why all our petrified wood products are fair trade!

All our products have passed through the hands of employees whose names we literally know. We know who they are, what their family members are called and what they make. These employees receive a generous salary by local standards and have good fringe benefits, such as health insurance for the whole family. Of course we support this, in fact, this might make us the most happy!

Curious about our other petrified wood products?

View a few here, or view our entire collection!