AFRICA’S MOST TRUSTED SUPPLIER
OF TREATED WOODEN POLES SINCE 1952
AFRICA’S MOST TRUSTED
SUPPLIER OF TREATED
WOODEN POLES SINCE 1952

 

 

20 Weird and Wonderful facts about trees & wood

July 12, 2016

 

We at R&B Timbers recommend this list of 40 weird and wonderful facts uncovered about trees and wood that may well surprise you. Wood is all around us - so much so that few 'see' the wood anymore to appreciate it's history. Here are some fun and interesting facts for you to read and enjoy.

R&B Timbers Blog 1

  1. Wood is made up of a combination of living, dying, and dead cells.
  2. The world's shortest tree is the dwarf willow, which lives in northerly and Arctic Tundra regions and rarely grows more than a couple of inches high.
  3. The tallest trees can grow as high as 100m, more than 320 feet. They include the Coast Redwood, Giant Sequoia, Sitka Spruce and Australian Mountain Ash.
  4. The world's tallest living standing hardwood tree is a mountain ash called Centurion in Tasmania. It's about 329 feet 8 3/4 inches high.
  5. Trees never die of old age. Insects, diseases and people are usually the killers.
  6. The mighty Giant Sequoia is thought by many to be the biggest living organism in the world, although a 2,400 acre fungus mycelium in eastern Oregon - almost ten square kilometres of it - is a strong if less-visible contender.
  7. The world is home to more than 23,000 different kinds of trees.
  8. The terms softwood and hardwood describe the leaves, seeds and structure of the trees rather than the type of wood they produce.
  9. Redwood bark can be as much as two feet thick.
  10. City trees tend to live for an average of 13 years less than country trees.
  11. The Amazon Basin is the biggest area of tropical forest on earth, a whopping eight and a half million acres.
  12. Just one tree can absorb as much as 22 kg's of carbon dioxide a year and can sequester a ton of CO2 safely by the time it's 40 years old, which is why they're so important in the battle against climate change.
  13. Balsa is actually a hardwood.
  14. Softwoods are not always softer than hardwoods.
  15. White oak is the easiest wood to bend using steam.
  16. The Osage Orange tree's wood generates the most heat when burned.
  17. The tree with the widest diameter trunk is the African Baobab, just under 50 feet across with a 155 foot circumference.
  18. The world's heaviest wood is Australian Bauhinia Red.
  19. The bark of the Cork oak is used for bottle corks and cork flooring.
  20. Softwoods come from gymnosperm trees (evergreens), while hardwoods come from angiosperm trees (deciduous types).

  To be continued...