6" Tall, Arizona Petrified Wood Bookends With Blue Barite - Arizona

Tall, Arizona Petrified Wood Bookends With Blue Barite - Arizona #180242

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 deep red coloration and an unidentified mineral between the brecciated wood fragments. The crystals have a stellate/radiating habit and a light blue color. The weight, color, form and streak are similar to barite, which is a likely candidate. It also resembles pyrophyllite in color, form and streak. However to form, pyrophyllite typically needs a hydrothermal or metamorphic environment which leaves me leaning towards barite. Exceptional polishing work on this pair.

Each bookend slightly varies in size, with one measuring 6" tall, 4.8" wide and 1.7" thick, while the other is 5.9" tall, 4.6" wide and 1.7" thick.

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.