Manzanita wood for mounts??

[PhalPal]

Has anyone used Manzanita (not sure of spelling) wood for mounting orchids??
My husband and I went camping in our local mountains this weekend. Due to the drought we have had the past few years and bark beetles killing trees, there has been a lot of thinning and cutting down of trees to hopefully avoid a huge wildfire like what happened in Arrowhead (another mountain community) last year.
To my amazement, there was cut Manzanita wood all along the road. This is a protected scrub and it is very illegal to cut it on your own. I asked a ranger if I could take a few branches home with me and he said 'Sure, as long as it's less then five branches." They will make beautiful posts to mount on as long as there are no oils or such to harm the plants. Does anyone know??

[Tobi]

Hi Connie,
I have heard of using them for mounting Bromeliads & Tillandsias. I found this link
(half way down) where they talk about using it for mounting. I love the look of the
wood.

Chula Orchids Newsletter/Catalog

[solay]

Lets see some pics. of the wood. I'm into natural looking mounts and I think you might have something good there.

[jay]

Connie, I was thinking more about this and I just wonder if it will retain enough water since it is such a hard wood. I hope you can find a way to use it as a mount. I am really not sure since I have not tried to do any mounting.

If nothing else you could sell it to someone who has birds as pets. Manzanita is great to use for perches. I used to sell tons of it when I owned my pet store in Indiana.