The Solitary Modwir Tree
"We first came together as clansmen sharing a Solitary Modwir Tree as our only sanctuary and meeting place.
~ Willow Hall Charter, 5199 ~
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The exact location of our Solitary Modwir Tree remains a mystery. Some have mentioned this tree could have been west of Black Swan Castle.
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Modwir
The modwir tree is a conifer. It is one of the common Elanthian woods.
Modwir needles have a soft, almost fuzzy appearance from a distance, with foliage bunched toward the ends of twigs so that the overall texture might best be described as clumpy. It tends to send out five branches a year in a whorl around its central stem. The upper branches tend to arch strongly upward, spaced widely enough apart on older trees so that each branch can be distinguished from a distance. Its cones are five or six inches long, narrowly cylindrical and chocolate brown in color. They remain closed and green the first year, ripen, turn brown, relax their scales and release seeds the second year. The modwir is relatively swift of growth. A seedling will reach a height of a hundred feet and a trunk diameter of thirty to fifty inches in thirty years. The mature bark is scaly grey with irregular but generally vertical grooves, often marked with white streaks of gum of resin from broken branches. The wood has long been prized for ship-building. ~ Simutronics Gemstone IV