List of Plants of The Edge Chronicles - I

I

• Ironwood - This is obviously the strongest of woods found on the Edge, used in the Sanctaphrax forest. Gathered by woodtrolls and sky pirates, it resembles a variety of giant pine, standing taller even than Earth redwoods. The wood of an ironwood tree is extremely strong, comparable in strength to iron, and for instance used to craft the lances of the Freeglade Lancers. Stope Boltjaw's artificial jaw is made of ironwood as well. The trees grow a branch every twenty years in large rings, at intervals up the trunk; this can be used to determine the age of ironwood trees. Quint explains this in the chapter where Quint and Maris use a particularly large tree as a beacon (Cash of the Skygalleons), along with the growth cycles of the ironwood tree. They can be used as a beacon by stranded sky-sailors because of their flammable sap. Although called a pine, a coniferous tree, the tree is once mentioned to shed its leaves like a deciduous tree. The Freeglade Lancers have their roost in the Ironwood stands, in between the Great and South lakes.