Which Trees Are Hardwood And Softwood

Timber from softwood trees has various uses such as furniture building components christmas trees paper etc.

Which trees are hardwood and softwood.

Timber from hardwood trees on the other hand is commonly used for applications such as high quality furniture high value construction projects flooring and decks. Botanical difference between hardwood and softwood gymnosperms and angiosperms image. One of the botanical groups of trees that in most cases have needle like or scale like leaves. Although sometimes old needles.

The seeds of hardwood trees will have a shell. Softwood trees are known as a gymnosperm. Wikimedia commons coming to the reproductive description in botanical terms softwood trees are gymnosperms whereas hardwood trees are angiosperms. On the other hand softwood conifers do not pass the winter with bare branches.

The conifers such as pines firs and redwoods contrasted with the hardwood or deciduous trees. Classifying wood as either a hardwood or softwood comes down to its physical structure and makeup and so it is overly simple to think of hardwoods as being hard and durable compared to soft and workable softwoods. In reality the technical distinction has to do with the reproductive biology of the species. This happens to be generally true but there are exceptions such as in the cases of wood from yew trees a softwood that is relatively hard and wood from balsa trees a.

Hardwoods tend to be slower growing and are therefore usually more dense. Hardwood trees take a longer time to grow than softwood trees. The hardwood softwood distinction is a general designation and does not literally refer to the hardness of the wood since some conifers have harder wood than certain hardwoods. Softwoods are conifers which have needles rather than traditional leaves and retain them through the winter.

Softwood is primarily used in construction framing the production of pulpwood for paper and other items such as fiberboard plywood and particleboard. Informally trees categorized as hardwoods are usually deciduous meaning they lose their leaves in the autumn. Softwood trees have medullary rays and tracheids and when observed under a microscope they do not appear to have pores like hardwoods. Hardwood information specifies that hardwood trees are deciduous.

This means that the leaves fall off in autumn and the tree remains leafless through springtime. From angiosperm trees that are not monocots and usually broad leaved and has vessel elements that transport water throughout the wood hardwood is formed and these elements appear as pores under a microscope. A few simple tests help you differentiate hardwood from softwood trees. Distinctions between hardwood and softwood.