Louisiana Petrified Palmwood Pendant

This is a gorgeous pendant made from 30 million year old, polished, Louisiana petrified palmwood and sterling silver. This palmwood of the genus Palmoxylon is the state fossil of Louisiana and comes from the Toledo Bend area. Native Americans historically used this petrified palmwood to make projectile points and other tools such as knives, awls, and scrapers.

Petrified palmwood includes a group of fossil woods that contain rod-like structures within the regular grain of the silicified or agatized wood. Depending upon the angle at which they are cut, these structures show up as spots, tapering rods, or continuous lines. The rod-like structures are sclerenchyma bundles that comprise part of the woody tissues that gave the wood its vertical strength.

The Louisiana State Fossil - Petrified Palmwood