7.2" Tall, Arizona Petrified Wood Bookends - Red, Yellow and Purple

Tall, Arizona Petrified Wood Bookends - Red, Yellow and Purple #210846

This is a gorgeous pair of bookends made from Late Triassic age, Arizona petrified wood. The bookends have been polished on the outer face and have red, yellow, orange, and purple coloration. Exceptional polishing work on this pair and the contact edges have been lined with felt.

Each bookend slightly varies in size, with one measuring 7.2" tall, 6.45" wide, and 1.7" thick, while the other is 6.9" tall, 6.8" wide, and 1.7" thick.

The vibrant coloration is due to the contaminating minerals in the silica which replaced the original wood structure. For example pinks and reds are due to hematite, a form of oxidized iron. This is similar to petrified wood which is found in the Petrified Forest National Park. The petrified forest encompasses nearly 100k acres and this wood comes from land outside of the park.

The petrified wood from the extinct conifer Araucarioxylon arizonicum which happens to be the state fossil of Arizona. The petrified wood of this tree 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 magnesium based minerals.

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.