InsideWood is an online resource and database for wood anatomy, serving as a reference, research, and teaching tool. Wood anatomy is a sub-area within the discipline of wood science. [1] [2] This freely accessible database is purely scientific and noncommercial. It was actually created in 2004 through funds from the NCSU and NSF, at the Library of NCSU, with the kind donation of wood anatomy materials by several international researchers, members of the IAWA, mostly botanists, biologists and wood scientists. [3]
The database contains categorized anatomical descriptions of wood based on the IAWA List of Microscopic Features for Hardwood and Softwood Identification, complemented by a comprehensive set of photomicrographs. As of November 2023, the database contained thousands of wood anatomical descriptions and nearly 66,000 photomicrographs of contemporary woods, along with more than 1,600 descriptions and 2,000 images of fossil woods. Its coverage is worldwide. [4]
Hosted by the North Carolina State University’s library, this digital collection encompasses CITES-listed timber species and other endangered woody plants. Its significance lies in aiding wood identification through a multi-entry key, enabling searches based on the presence or absence of IAWA features. Additionally, it functions as a virtual reference collection, allowing users to retrieve descriptions and images by searching scientific or common names, or other relevant keywords. [5] The whole database contains materials from over 10,000 woody species and 200 plant families.
Initiator for this wood anatomy database has been the American botanist and wood scientist Elisabeth Wheeler.
The database contains two dinstictive menus for specific anatomical features of modern wood species:
In nowadays, identifying wood holds significance across several domains and it is of critical importance for commercial, forensic, archaeological, and paleontological applications. Also, timber identification provides new tools needed for the tracking of illegal logging and transportation. [8] It is also important from the economical point of view. [9]
Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinetry, furniture making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning.
Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes, including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing. Lumber has many uses beyond home building. Lumber is referred to as timber in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, while in other parts of the world the term timber refers specifically to unprocessed wood fiber, such as cut logs or standing trees that have yet to be cut.
Anatomical pathology (Commonwealth) or anatomic pathology (U.S.) is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the macroscopic, microscopic, biochemical, immunologic and molecular examination of organs and tissues. Over the 20th century, surgical pathology has evolved tremendously: from historical examination of whole bodies (autopsy) to a more modernized practice, centered on the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer to guide treatment decision-making in oncology. Its modern founder was the Italian scientist Giovanni Battista Morgagni from Forlì.
Araucariaceae is a family of conifers with three living genera, Araucaria, Agathis, and Wollemia. While the family's native distribution is now largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, except for a few species of Agathis in Malesia, it was formerly widespread in the Northern Hemisphere during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. The main differences between hardwoods and softwoods is that the softwoods completely lack vessels (pores). The main softwood species also have resin canals in their structure.
Paubrasilia echinata is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. It is a Brazilian timber tree commonly known as Pernambuco wood or brazilwood and is the national tree of Brazil. This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it is the premier wood used for making bows for stringed instruments. The wood also yields a historically important red dye called brazilin, which oxidizes to brazilein.
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood contrasts with softwood.
Araucarioxylon arizonicum is an extinct species of conifer that is the state fossil of Arizona. The species is known from massive tree trunks that weather out of the Chinle Formation in desert badlands of northern Arizona and adjacent New Mexico, most notably in the 378.51 square kilometres Petrified Forest National Park. There, these trunks are locally so abundant that they have been used as building materials.
The Janka hardness test, created by Austrian-born American researcher Gabriel Janka (1864–1932), measures the resistance of a sample of wood to denting and wear. It measures the force required to embed an 11.28-millimeter-diameter steel ball halfway into a sample of wood.
Petiveria is a genus of flowering plants in the pigeonberry family, Petiveriaceae. The sole species it contains, Petiveria alliacea, is native to Florida and the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and tropical South America. Introduced populations occur in Benin and Nigeria. It is a deeply rooted herbaceous perennial shrub growing up to 1 m (3.3 ft) in height and has small greenish piccate flowers. The roots and leaves have a strong acrid, garlic-like odor which taints the milk and meat of animals that graze on it.
A masquerade ceremony is a cultural or religious event involving the wearing of masks. The practice has been seen throughout history from the prehistoric era to present day. They have a variety of themes. Their meanings can range from anything including life, death, and fertility. In the Dogon religion, the traditional beliefs of the Dogon people of Mali, there are several mask dances, including the Sigi festival. The Sigi entered the Guinness Book of Records as the "Longest religious ceremony".
Wood anatomy is a scientific sub-area of wood science, which examines the variations in xylem anatomical characteristics across trees, shrubs, and herbaceous species to explore inquiries related to plant function, growth, and the environment.
Agathoxylon is a form genus of fossil wood, including massive tree trunks. Although identified from the late Palaeozoic to the end of the Mesozoic, Agathoxylon is common from the Carboniferous to Triassic. Agathoxylon represents the wood of multiple conifer groups, including both Araucariaceae and Cheirolepidiaceae, with late Paleozoic and Triassic forms possibly representing other conifers or other seed plant groups like "pteridosperms".
The Cucaracha Formation (Tca) is a geologic formation in Panama. It preserves vertebrate and plant fossils dating back to the Neogene period; Early to Middle Miocene epochs (Hemingfordian). Fossils of the crocodylian Centenariosuchus, the turtle Rhinoclemmys panamaensis and the artiodactyl Paratoceras have been found in the formation.
Wood science is the scientific field which predominantly studies and investigates elements associated with the formation, the physical and chemical composition, and the macro- and microstructure of wood as a bio-based and lignocellulosic material. Wood science additionally delves into the biological, chemical, physical, and mechanical properties and characteristics of wood as a natural material.
The International Association of Wood Anatomists (IAWA) is an association that studies wood anatomy formed in 1931. Their office is currently based in the Netherlands.
This article records new taxa of plants that are scheduled to be described during the year 2017, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that are scheduled to occur in the year 2017.
Xanthophyllum lanceatum is a tree in the Polygalaceae family. It grows across Southeast Asia from Sumatera to Bangladesh. The leaves are used as a hops-substitute in beer making and the wood as fuel. Fish in the Mekong regularly eat the fruit, flowers and leaves.
Pararaucaria is a genus of conifer cone belonging to the extinct family Cheirolepidiaceae. Fossils are known from the Lower Jurassic to Early Cretaceous of North America, Europe, South America and Asia. It is associated with Brachyphyllum-type foliage.
Elisabeth A. Wheeler is an American biologist, botanist, and wood scientist, who is an emeritus professor at the North Carolina State University.