11.6" Colorful, Free-Standing Petrified Wood - Arizona

Colorful, Free-Standing Petrified Wood - Arizona #222163

This is a brilliantly colored, 11.6" wide, polished section of petrified wood (Araucarioxylon) from Arizona. One side has been highly polished to a mirror-like finish. The base of the wood has been cut flat so that is displays nicely on a hard surface without the need for a display stand. A lot of purple, yellow, and red-orange coloration in this piece.

Araucarioxylon Petrified Wood From Arizona

This wood is similar to petrified wood found in the Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, Arizona. Its petrified forest encompasses nearly 100,000 acres, and is almost entirely represented by the extinct conifer Araucarioxylon arizonicum.

The petrified wood from Araucarioxylon arizonicum happens to be the state fossil of Arizona. It is frequently referred to as "rainbow wood" because of the large variety of colors some specimens exhibit. The reds and oranges come from hematite inclusions within the silica, the yellows from limonite, and the purples from extremely fine hematite spherules.

Araucarioxylon arizonicum is estimated to have grown more than 150 feet high and dominated the tropical forests in what is now Arizona nearly 225 million years ago.