How is wood constructed?

Wood is available either as a tree or in processed form as a piece of furniture, flooring or whole house known. The creation of wood is a slow, natural process that nature has set up surprisingly effectively.

From the small plant to the tree - this is how wood is made

• From a tiny, unwooded plant, an impressively large one emerges over many decades Linden tree or beech. This is just one of nature's many wonders. The wood is built up slowly but steadily.
• The still unwooded young plant is the "primary shoot". In the next stage the designation is "secondary shoot"; this already contains wood.
• The growth in length occurs exclusively through the formation of tissue in the tip of the trunk, which constantly produces new cells.
• The most important element for the wood structure is the cambium, which forms the growth layer and is responsible for the growth in thickness. This layer forms the cortex cells (phloem) on the outside. The inner bark (bast) is active, dies with increasing age of the tree and then becomes the outer bark (bark). It protects the regrown inner bark and the whole tree from dehydration, pathogens and
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Tree identification

Finding out which trees are growing in the forest or in the park is great fun. …

• The cambium forms xylem in the interior; these cells move nutrients and water from the roots into the leaves. In older trees, these cells usually nucleate in the inner area, which is therefore called heartwood. The continuously forming, functioning cells are the sapwood; they lie under the cambium.
• Depending on the season and climate, the tree has growth phases in which it forms new wood (early wood and latewood), rests or prepares for growth again. During these cyclical phases, the growth rings appear as the tree ages.
• The innermost core of the trunk is the pith, which is made up of dead cells. The pith is connected to the other layers of the tree by rays that ensure the correct transport of water and nutrients.
• Of the Wooden structure consists of the pith in the center, followed by heartwood, sapwood, cambium, bast and bark.

The chemical composition

All trees are made up of the same chemical components: holocellulose (a combination of cellulose and hemicelluloses), lignin, extracts and minerals. Only the composition is different for the individual woods.

Softwood has a different structure than hardwood

• Softwood is characterized by an even structure and consists of around 90 percent long elongated cells (tracheids), 9 percent from rectangular cells (parenchyma) and 1 percent from resin canals (except yew and fir).
• Hardwood has a much more complex structure and - depending on the species - settles up to 40 to 60 percent from tracheids, 10 to 30 percent from parenchyma and 20 to 40 percent from vessels together.