List Of North American Trees Hardwood And Softwood

Softwood lumber is highly versatile and beautiful making it ideal for structural applications as well as interior and exterior designs.

List of north american trees hardwood and softwood. The simple cell structure of softwoods long uniformly packed fibers gives them a high strength to weight ratio making them flexible and capable of bearing heavy loads. North american softwood species have needle shaped foliage instead of the leaves found on hardwood trees. 10 of the most common hardwood trees in north america. Department of agriculture forest service forest products laboratory.

Softwoods of north america. Balau shorea spp american hornbeam carpinus caroliniana sheoak polynesian ironwood casuarina equisetifolia giant ironwood choricarpia subargentea diesel tree copaifera langsdorffii borneo ironwood eusideroxylon zwageri lignum vitae. Types of trees are harvested to make lost lasting furniture decks flooring and construction. American hophornbeam ostrya virginiana ipê handroanthus spp iroko african teak milicia excelsa ironwood.

Also known as taxodium distichum the bald cypress is found along the coastal wetlands and low lying areas of the southeast and gulf coast region. You can easily identify a hardwood from a conifer. As a resource american hardwoods are abundant renewing and sustainable and an excellent choice for eco effective design and building. Hardwood trees usually have broad flat leaves as opposed to coniferous needled or scaled tree foliage another name for a hardwood tree is appropriately broadleaf.

They grow in the tropical forests of the world and must be imported for domestic use. This tree is atypical in that it drops its needles annually hence the bald in its name. A guide to the grain. Softwood trees include cedar fir hemlock pine redwood and spruce.

Luminous contributions to the nomenclature and geographic distributions of both softwood and hardwood trees of north america 45 76 100 139 197 198. In a home softwoods primarily are used as structural lumber such as 2x4s and 2x6s with limited decorative applications. Though they grow almost everywhere in america and comprise 40 of all trees most. However the wood is omitted from this list for two main reasons.

Most but not all hardwoods are deciduous perennial plants which are normally leafless for some time during the year. Tropical hardwoods including mahogany rosewood teak and wenge are not native to north america. First it is virtually unobtainable and not commercially available outside of its natural range in central south america. Softwoods come from conifer trees or cone bearing trees.

American softwoods have the strength. In addition to the basics where they grow general description and abundance. This guide features 20 of the most abundant and most often used hardwood species. A hardwood named quipo cavanillesia platanifolia is commonly reported as the softest known wood with an alleged janka hardness of 22 lb f 98 n.

They grow slower than softwood trees making hardwoods valuable as they are more difficult to replace. The guide to american hardwood species. Today america is recognized worldwide as a sustainable source of top quality products.