List Of North American Trees Hardwood And Softwood

Softwoods of north america.

List of north american trees hardwood and softwood.

As a resource american hardwoods are abundant renewing and sustainable and an excellent choice for eco effective design and building. Softwood lumber is highly versatile and beautiful making it ideal for structural applications as well as interior and exterior designs. 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. In a home softwoods primarily are used as structural lumber such as 2x4s and 2x6s with limited decorative applications.

The most common softwood tree in north america is the bald cypress. American hophornbeam ostrya virginiana ipê handroanthus spp iroko african teak milicia excelsa ironwood. Softwood trees include cedar fir hemlock pine redwood and spruce. Types of trees are harvested to make lost lasting furniture decks flooring and construction.

A guide to the grain. Most but not all hardwoods are deciduous perennial plants which are normally leafless for some time during the year. They grow slower than softwood trees making hardwoods valuable as they are more difficult to replace. They grow in the tropical forests of the world and must be imported for domestic use.

Though they grow almost everywhere in america and comprise 40 of all trees most. Today america is recognized worldwide as a sustainable source of top quality products. You can easily identify a hardwood from a conifer. Softwoods have been exported from the united states for over 400 years.

Department of agriculture forest service forest products laboratory. 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. This guide features 20 of the most abundant and most often used hardwood species.

However the wood is omitted from this list for two main reasons. 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. Luminous contributions to the nomenclature and geographic distributions of both softwood and hardwood trees of north america 45 76 100 139 197 198. 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.

September 1997 alden harry a. This tree is atypical in that it drops its needles annually hence the bald in its name. The guide to american hardwood species. 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.

Softwoods come from conifer trees or cone bearing trees. In addition to the basics where they grow general description and abundance. North american softwood species have needle shaped foliage instead of the leaves found on hardwood trees.