Where the differences between the four seasons are distinct, e.g. These cells then go on to form thickened secondary cell walls, composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. This process is known as secondary growth it is the result of cell division in the vascular cambium, a lateral meristem, and subsequent expansion of the new cells. Wood, in the strict sense, is yielded by trees, which increase in diameter by the formation, between the existing wood and the inner bark, of new woody layers which envelop the entire stem, living branches, and roots. See also: Dendrochronology § Growth rings The year-to-year variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives clues to the prevailing climate at the time a tree was cut. Recent use of wood has been enhanced by the addition of steel and bronze into construction. Buildings like the European Neolithic long house were made primarily of wood. Known constructions using wood date back ten thousand years. People have used wood for thousands of years for many purposes, including as a fuel or as a construction material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, artworks, and paper. Wood can be dated by carbon dating and in some species by dendrochronology to determine when a wooden object was created. Ī 2011 discovery in the Canadian province of New Brunswick yielded the earliest known plants to have grown wood, approximately 395 to 400 million years ago. Dominant uses were for furniture and building construction. In 1991 approximately 3.5 billion cubic meters of wood were harvested. As an abundant, carbon-neutral renewable resource, woody materials have been of intense interest as a source of renewable energy.
More recently it emerged as a feedstock for the production of purified cellulose and its derivatives, such as cellophane and cellulose acetate.Īs of 2005, the growing stock of forests worldwide was about 434 billion cubic meters, 47% of which was commercial. Wood has been used for thousands of years for fuel, as a construction material, for making tools and weapons, furniture and paper. Wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, or woodchips or fiber. It also conveys water and nutrients between the leaves, other growing tissues, and the roots. In a living tree it performs a support function, enabling woody plants to grow large or to stand up by themselves. Wood is sometimes defined as only the secondary xylem in the stems of trees, or it is defined more broadly to include the same type of tissue elsewhere such as in the roots of trees or shrubs.
It is an organic material – a natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin that resists compression. Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants.
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