By accident, I found a bunch of almost dry red elm today at a wood drop off site. Tough to identify at first, it looked like it was cut early last summer into 6' lengths. The bark was lying along side of it--nice straggly, thick stuff. What also gave it away were the tight annual rings out near the edge when the tree starts slowing down its growth rate. Cottonwood logs the same size were close by, but you could tell them apart easily because of the much coarser annual ring spacing all the way out to the edge.
My "Sherlock Holmes" venture proved correct. When cross cutting the 18" to 22" dia. logs, the wood was still slightly damp in the center, and redness here and there popped out along the grain. I split some the next day and sure enough, red elm it was--nice and dense, and ready for splitting and final drying. No stringiness at all.
Life is beautiful.