Cellular Structure Of Hardwood

The basic cell types are called tracheids vessel members fibres and parenchyma.

Cellular structure of hardwood.

Fig 1 cell structure of a hardwood m 146 682 2 2. Vessels tracheids fibers and parenchymal cells tracheids are not common. Represents the transverse section or a plane parallel to the top sur face of a stump or the end sur. On page 82 of textbook.

Hardwood rays may contain 1 to 30 cells in width average volume is 17 of the xylem can be more than 30. The draw ing here shows a cube about 1 32 inch on a side. The microscopic cellular structure of wood including annual rings and rays produces the characteristic grain patterns in different species of trees the grain pattern is also determined by the plane in which the logs are cut at the saw mill. For simplicity s sake vessel elements will simply be referred to as pores throughout this website.

Hardwood xylem four main cell types. Fibers act as support tissue with thick and lignified cell walls which may contain small and narrow slitlike pores. Wood wood microstructure. Hardwoods contain vessels softwoods do not.

In transverse or cross sections the annual rings appear like concentric bands with rays extending outward like the spokes of a wheel. They can be found around vessels in quercus and as vessel like tracheids in the latewood in ulmus. Softwoods are made of tracheids and parenchyma and hardwoods of vessel members fibres. According to estimates 1 cubic metre about 35 cubic feet of spruce wood contains 350 billion 500 billion cells.

The microscope reveals that wood is composed of minute units called cells. Structure of a softwood figure 2 is a drawing of the cell structure of a minute block of softwood white pine. Wood is a porous three dimensional hydroscopic interconnecting matrix of cellulose hemicelluloses and lignin. Softwoods which come from conifers such as fir pine and cedar have a simple cellular structure with 90 95 of the cells being longitudinal tracheids.

Hardwood xylem wood is composed of at least 4 major kinds of cells. Cellular structure of hardwood vs softwood the differences between hardwoods and softwoods come from the difference in their cellular structure. In simple terms a tree can be described as a bundle of vessels.