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.
- Wood is made up of a combination of living, dying, and dead cells.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Trees never die of old age. Insects, diseases and people are usually the killers.
- 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.
- The world is home to more than 23,000 different kinds of trees.
- The terms softwood and hardwood describe the leaves, seeds and structure of the trees rather than the type of wood they produce.
- Redwood bark can be as much as two feet thick.
- City trees tend to live for an average of 13 years less than country trees.
- The Amazon Basin is the biggest area of tropical forest on earth, a whopping eight and a half million acres.
- 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.
- Balsa is actually a hardwood.
- Softwoods are not always softer than hardwoods.
- White oak is the easiest wood to bend using steam.
- The Osage Orange tree's wood generates the most heat when burned.
- The tree with the widest diameter trunk is the African Baobab, just under 50 feet across with a 155 foot circumference.
- The world's heaviest wood is Australian Bauhinia Red.
- The bark of the Cork oak is used for bottle corks and cork flooring.
- Softwoods come from gymnosperm trees (evergreens), while hardwoods come from angiosperm trees (deciduous types).
To be continued...