What Makes A Hardwood Tree

Shrubs can be hardwoods the jagged leaves of a holly bush.

What makes a hardwood tree. Certain types of hardwood are especially popular in furniture construction. Hardwood is wood from dicot trees these are usually found in broad leaved temperate and tropical forests. Though similar in appearance to the green ash this tree s leaves are noticeably lighter on the underside. This white oak tree with a branching form and leaves that drop in the autumn is characteristic of most angiosperms.

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. Used commonly to make baseball bats and flooring this hardy tree has taken monumental hits lately from the asian emerald ash borer. Their high density and rich heartwood colors make hardwoods well suited for furniture and interior woodwork. What are hardwood trees.

The texture and density of the wood a tree produces puts it in either the hardwood or softwood category. They produce a fruit or nut and often go dormant in the winter. Most hardwoods are extremely durable and heavy making them good for furniture construction since they hold up for many years. Hardwood comes from deciduous trees as opposed to softwoods which come from coniferous trees.

With white dense wood the white ash is the most common daily wood of the hardwood trees. Hardwood trees typically produce denser wood than softwood trees and are often sought out for furniture making construction and to make musical instruments such as clarinets. In reality the technical distinction has to do with the reproductive biology of the species. The trees have broad leaves rather than needle like leaves.

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. That makes the tree an angiosperm or hardwood. The term hardwood tree is a botanical grouping of trees with similar characteristics. Sigurcamp istock getty images though we think of hardwoods as being trees not all hardwoods are full size trees.

Most hardwood trees are deciduous trees which lose their leaves annually like elm or maple. Softwoods are conifers which have needles rather than traditional leaves and retain them through the winter. Hardwood trees are found in many locations around the world. Distinctions between hardwood and softwood.

Citation needed in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen hardwood which come from angiosperm trees contrasts with softwood which are from gymnosperm trees. Softwood comes from a conifer cone bearing or evergreen trees such as pine or spruce. Hardwood tree characteristics apply to many of the tree species in this country. Additionally hardwood trees tend to have a branched or divided trunk referred to as a dendritic form.

Hardwoods that grow mainly in the tropics include lauan ebony.