Distinctions between hardwood and softwood.
Is a coniferous tree hardwood or softwood.
The chestnut tree is a hardwood tree.
Biologists contract hardwood trees with softwood trees.
One of the botanical groups of trees that in most cases have needle like or scale like leaves.
Hardwood trees take a longer time to grow than softwood trees.
Hardwood originates from deciduous trees that shed leaves during winter.
On the other hand softwood comes from coniferous trees which we call evergreens.
Softwood comes from coniferous trees and hardwood comes from deciduous trees.
Informally trees categorized as hardwoods are usually deciduous meaning they lose their leaves in the autumn.
So what is a softwood tree.
Softwoods are conifers trees with needle like leaves.
The conifers such as pines firs and redwoods contrasted with the hardwood or deciduous trees.
Coniferous trees have needles deciduous trees have leaves.
A few well known hardwood species are oak maple and cherry but many more trees share hardwood tree characteristics.
In reality the technical distinction has to do with the reproductive biology of the species.
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.
Other types of hardwood trees in american forests include.
Hardwood comes from trees with wide leaves while softwood comes from conifers like cypress and pines.
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.
Softwoods are conifers which have needles rather than traditional leaves and retain them through the winter.
These trees will not shed their leaves during winter and they bear cones or uncovered seeds that fall to the ground and germinate.
Hardwood vs softwood comparison.