Which Trees Are Hardwood And Softwood

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.

Which trees are hardwood and softwood.

A few simple tests help you differentiate hardwood from softwood trees. 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. Softwood trees have medullary rays and tracheids and when observed under a microscope they do not appear to have pores like hardwoods. Botanical difference between hardwood and softwood gymnosperms and angiosperms image.

Timber from softwood trees has various uses such as furniture building components christmas trees paper etc. This is a list of woods most commonly used in the timber and lumber trade. This means that the leaves fall off in autumn and the tree remains leafless through springtime. 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.

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. The conifers such as pines firs and redwoods contrasted with the hardwood or deciduous trees. All trees reproduce by producing seeds but the seed structure varies. Informally trees categorized as hardwoods are usually deciduous meaning they lose their leaves in the autumn.

In general hardwood comes from a deciduous tree which loses its leaves annually and softwood comes from a conifer which usually remains evergreen. Although sometimes old needles. Softwoods are conifers which have needles rather than traditional leaves and retain them through the winter. The seeds of hardwood trees will have a shell.

Softwood trees are known as a gymnosperm. In reality the technical distinction has to do with the reproductive biology of the species. One of the botanical groups of trees that in most cases have needle like or scale like leaves. Distinctions between hardwood and softwood.

On the other hand softwood conifers do not pass the winter with bare branches. Hardwood trees take a longer time to grow than softwood trees. Hardwoods tend to be slower growing and are therefore usually more dense. Wikimedia commons coming to the reproductive description in botanical terms softwood trees are gymnosperms whereas hardwood trees are angiosperms.