I think the higher stats should be tied to how common the tree is. Some trees load in a lot more places than others. It would make sense to me if the more desirable stats would be tied to trees that are very rare.
Or could increased stats perhaps be tied to quality of the wood or parhaps other properties of the different trees?
I know I sometimes get a bit obsessed with details, but it's nice if we could be consistant.
Below is an excerpt of the info given in the Herbalist Books of Trees, from the Aegean Islands (sorry about the reversed alphabetical order):
YEW TREE
The entire tree is poisonous. The hard, elastic and tough yew wood is used for bows, arrows and spears, and as rungs for rope ladders.
WILLOW TREE
The young supple branches and twigs are used for fletching baskets and as dowsing rods. Larger branches can be used as shafts for arrows.
SPINDLEBERRY TREE
The wood from spindleberry lacks heartwood but is very hard. It is often used for finer whittled products, like knitting needles, wooden nails and pegs, but also for smaller sculptures.
PLANE TREE
The wood of the plane tree takes a fine polish and is much prized by cabinet-makers.
PINE TREE
Pine wood is is used for masts, roofbeams, houses and ships and lots of other things, including firewood.
ORANGE TREE
Orange wood is hard and reddish, and is sometimes used for chairs and cabinets.
OLIVE TREE
Olive wood is hard and enduring and not without value. But it's mostly for the fruits that olives are grown
OAK TREE
Oak wood is very heavy, very dense and very hard. Oak timber is used for ships, roofbeams, floors, but also to furniture, fence poles and barrels.
MAPLE TREE
The pale yellowish wood from maples lacks heartwood and is rather hard. It is used for whittling and furniture, floorboards and musical instruments.
LARCH TREE
The tough and often very straight grown larch wood is used in mainly in the same ways as pine, for instance as masts and for ship building, because of its endurance against rotting.
JUNIPER TREE
The tough and hard juniper wood is used for whittling and carving, but also as fencing posts. Above all the branches are used for bows, arrows and spears and as rungs for rope ladders.
JUDAS TREE
There is no commercial use for the Judas Tree, apart from the purely ornamental.
FIR TREE
Fir wood is comparatively light and soft, since the trees grow fast, but still is used in many different ways - for building, carpentry, papermaking and of course as firewood.
ELM TREE
Elm wood is not commonly used, mainly because it so often has flaws, like fissures and knotholes. Flawless elm wood is however valuable. It's tough and hard to cleave and is mostly used for making furniture.
ELDER TREE
Elder wood is almost white and lacks heartwood. The heavy, hard wood is excellent for tree spoons, but you rarely get enough wood from an elder to manufacture any larger products.
DOGWOOD TREE
The wood from dogwood is very hard and often used for whittling.
CYPRESS TREE
Cypress wood is very hard and durable, because of its content of volatile oils. It was much used for making idols in the old times. It is also used in shipbuilding and housebuilding by the Phoenicians, Cretans and Greeks.
CHESTNUT TREE
Chestnut wood is not very valuable, since it is soft, easy to cleave and lacks heartwood. It is mostly used as firewood, but also for boxes and kitchen tables.
CEDAR
The wood from Cedar trees is extremely durable, and often used to build palaces and temples. You may have heard of the Temple of Salomo? Built entirely from Cedar wood. The tall trunks make excellent columns.
BIRCH TREE
Birchwood is whitish and lacks heartwood. It is used for furniture, skis, floor boards and axle-trees. It is also very good for paper making, and makes the best firewood of all.
BEECH TREE
Beech wood is heavy, hard and easy to cleave. It makes excellent firewood, but is of course even more valuable for things as diverse as floor boards, furniture, ships' keels and butter-kegs.
ASH TREE
The tough, elastic ash wood is among the best kinds if wood for things like shafts and handles of various tools, wagon parts, oars, skis and cross-pieces.
ASPEN TREE
Aspen wood is light, both in weight and colour. It lacks heartwood, is porous and easy to cleave. It's mostly used for furniture and boxes, and as firewood.
ALDER TREE
Alder wood is pale yellow, but bleeds red sap, almost like blood. It is used for wooden shoes, potter's wheels, frames and furniture.
