Bill; Various types of figures are obtained in the Maple tree. Curly, often called fiddleback figure because of being used on the backs of violins, birds eye Maple, Maple Burl, Leaf figure Maple, Quilted or figured Maple, Rotary cut hard Maple, called "white" Maple, Flame or Tiger Maple, and straight grained Maple. I may have missed a few. Maple burl is the most exotic. Comes from the Sugar maple and inherits the colors of it's fall leaves - red and gold. Any defect or damage on a tree can cause a burl to form as it heals over. Curly Maple usualy comes from the Sugar Maple, and is quite common in soft Maples. Rarest Maple figure is a very strong bird's-eye figure. I beleive that the different grains and patterns in trees are caused by the stress placed upon that tree in it's growing conditions. A tree growing on the side of a hill will have more stress on one side, causing compression of the grain on that side. The old lumberjacks could pick out a bird'seye Maple just by looking at it. Jim S