Tag: Hardwood

Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees (more strictly speaking non-monocot angiosperm trees). It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.
Hardwood contrasts with softwood (which comes from conifer trees). Hardwoods are not necessarily harder than softwoods. In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness, with the range in density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods; some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while yew is an example of a hard softwood. The hardest hardwoods are much harder than any softwood. There are about a hundred times as many hardwoods as softwoods.
Hardwood should not be confused with the term ‘heartwood’ (which can be from hardwood or softwood).
Hardwoods have a more complex structure than softwoods. The dominant feature separating “hardwoods” from softwoods is the…