A chart displaying some of the qualities and characteristics of wood used on Pern

Hardwoods

ASH (also applies to Rowan)
	Grain and Color:	straight-grained, coarse uniform texture; grayish or light brown to pale yellow streaked with brown
	Known Locations:	High Reaches
	Popular Uses:	furniture, flooring, doors, architectural millwork and moulding, kitchen cabinets, paneling, tool handles, turnings, food and liquid containers, snowshoes

BIRCH
	Grain and Color:	close, straight-grained with a fine uniform texture; creamy, light reddish brown
	Known Locations:	Igen and Lemos forests
	Popular Uses:	furniture, millwork and paneling, doors, flooring, kitchen cabinets, turnings and toys

CHERRY
	Grain and Color:	fine, uniform, straight grain, satiny, smooth texture, and may naturally contain brown pith flecks and small gum pockets; red to reddish brown, darkens with age and on exposure to light
	Known Locations:	(unknown)
	Popular Uses:	fine furniture and cabinet making, mouldings and millwork, kitchen cabinets, paneling, flooring, doors, boat interiors, musical instruments, turnings and carvings

COTTONWOOD
	Grain and Color:	coarse texture, straight-grained and contains relatively few defects; pale to light brown
	Known Locations:	open plains
	Comments:	sometimes has a fuzzy surface when cut, which in turn will require additional care when finishing, good resistance to splitting with nails and screws, relatively light in weight, wood is soft, and weak in bending and compression, low in shock resistance, has no odor or taste when dry
	Popular Uses:	furniture, furniture parts, millwork and mouldings, toys and kitchen utensils, specialized uses are venetian blinds, shutters, and caskets

HOLLY (Ilex)
	Grain and Color:	very close, almost invisible; white
	Known Locations:	(unknown)
	Comments:	excellent for fine detail, pure white when cut but gradually darkens with age, medicinal use for pneumonia, excellent finishing qualities, decent durability, sometimes dyed black
	Popular Uses:	inlay, decorative veneer, instrument making

OAK
	Grain and Color:	straight-grained, with medium to coarse texture; light tan to dark brown, sometimes a reddish brown
	Known Locations:	widespread
	Popular Uses:	furniture, flooring, architectural millwork and mouldings, doors, kitchen cabinets, paneling, barrel staves (tight cooperage), and caskets

PEAR, GORU PEAR, YELLOW FRUIT
	Grain and Color:	moderate grain, creamy in color
	Known Locations:	Ista
	Comments:	good carving wood, supports detail carving, grows up to 13 m (43 feet)
	Popular Uses:	carving

PECAN
	Grain and Color:	coarse-textured, fine-grained, usually straight but can be wavy or irregular; pale to reddish brown
	Known Locations:	Nerat
	Popular Uses:	tool handles, furniture, cabinetry, flooring, paneling, wooden ladders, dowels

PLUM
	Grain and Color:	close grained; light purple
	Known Locations:	(unknown)
	Comments:	good carving wood, interesting grain coloration
	Popular Uses:	furniture, millwork and paneling, doors, flooring, kitchen cabinets, turnings and toys

REDFRUIT
	Grain and Color:	close, even grained, very little grain pattern although some cuts contain interesting fiddleback figuring; tan to creamy pink
	Known Locations:	Nerat, High Reaches Hold, Nabol, Igen
	Comments:	heavy, easy carving with interesting grain patterns, takes beautiful natural finish, tends to be wormy, finishes cleanly with most cutting and can be brought to an excellent finish
	Popular Uses:	mostly furniture

TEAK
	Grain and Color:	uniform grain; coloring when unseasoned has a golden-yellow color, with seasoning darkens into brown, mottled with darker streaks
	Known Locations:	Nerat, but not found near the coast
	Popular Uses:	flooring, building support and frames, shipbuilding, fine furniture, door and window frames, wharves, bridges, cooling-tower louvres, paneling, and venetian blinds

WALNUT
	Grain and Color:	straight-grained, but sometimes with wavy or curly grain that produces an attractive and decorative figure; light brown to dark chocolate brown, occasionally with a purplish cast and darker streaks
	Known Locations:	Benden
	Popular Uses:	furniture, cabinets, architectural millwork, doors, flooring, and paneling, a favored wood for using in contrast with lighter-colored species

WILLOW
	Grain and Color:	fine even texture generally straight-grained; pale reddish brown to grayish brown
	Known Locations:	Nabol, usually near wet riverbanks
	Comments:	fairly easy to work, good for planing, turning, and sanding, easy to bend though not very strong, many medicinal uses, grows to 25m (80 ft), produces a good writing charcoal, branches used in weavings, care is needed to avoid a fuzzy surface when interlocked grain is present, good for nails and screws, weak in bending, compression, shock-resistance and stiffness
	Popular Uses:	furniture, moldings and millwork, paneling, doors, kitchen utensils and toys, good walnut substitute

Softwoods
(These are the only softwoods I was able to find. Also, please note that Skybroom /is/ a softwood, despite its hard characteristics.)

PINE, SUGAR
	Grain and Color:	close, sometimes knotty; creamy, tan
	Known Locations:	Nabol, Lemos
	Popular Uses:	furniture, trim, turnings, veneer, construction

PINE, WHITE "SCRUB PINE"
	Grain and Color:	close; white
	Known Locations:	High Reaches
	Comments:	excellent carving wood, easy to work, good for planing, turning, and sanding, white pine tends to be very soft which may make it unsuitable for some furniture applications
	Popular Uses:	furniture, moldings, boat building, carpentry, veneer, carving

SKY-BROOM
	Grain and Color:	close grained; white with red or purple streaks
	Known Locations:	Lemos (northern end of the plains of Keroon)
	Comments:	good carving if you work around knots, pleasing odor, beautiful grain, a good exterior wood, grows several dragonlengths tall, the tall trunks ending in bushy crowns of tufted needles, much like the growth on Earth cedars, dense and hard, difficult to work
	Popular Uses:	boat building, furniture, construction, some instruments such as harps

References

"Working Wood" - Jim Tolpin
"The Beginner's Handbook of Woodcarving" - Charles Beiderman & William Johnston
"All the Plants of Pern" http://www.angelfire.com/on2/menai/pernplants.html
"Hardwood Information Center" http://www.hardwood.org/
"Woodzone.com" http://www.woodzone.com/
"The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, 2nd edition" - Jody Lynn Nye with Anne McCaffrey (Flora and Fauna sections)

For the IC locations of some of the trees, I didn't list the Southern Continent though some do apply. However, I figured that if we're RPing in an age before AIVAS, trekking down to Southern isn't too IC