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 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.
Wood is a structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. 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 sometimes defined as only the secondary xylem in the stems of trees, or more broadly to include the same type of tissue elsewhere, such as in the roots of trees or shrubs. In a living tree it performs a support function, enabling woody plants to grow large or to stand up by themselves. It also conveys water and nutrients between the leaves, other growing tissues, and the roots. Wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, woodchips, or fiber.
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.
Araucariaceae – also known as araucarians – is a family of coniferous trees, with three living genera, Araucaria, Agathis, and Wollemia. While the family was distributed globally during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, in their native distribution they are now largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, except for a few species of Agathis in Southeast Asia.
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 dicot 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.
Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree, is the name given to a special type of fossilized wood, the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. Petrifaction is the result of a tree or tree-like plants having been replaced by stone via a mineralization process that often includes permineralization and replacement. The organic materials making up cell walls have been replicated with minerals. In some instances, the original structure of the stem tissue may be partially retained. Unlike other plant fossils, which are typically impressions or compressions, petrified wood is a three-dimensional representation of the original organic material.
Pulpwood can be defined as timber that is ground and processed into a fibrous pulp. This type of wood is commonly used for paper-making but can also be made into low-grade wood and used for chips, energy, pellets, and engineered products.
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.
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.
The Intertrappean Beds are a Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene geologic formation in India. The beds are found as interbeds between Deccan Traps layers, including the slightly older Lameta Formation. The formation spans the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, with a stratigraphic range of only a few hundred thousand years before and after the boundary, and a significant debate exists about whether specific sites belong to the Cretaceous or the Paleocene. Indeterminate theropod and pterosaur remains have been recovered from the formation, as well as dinosaur eggs. The mammal genera Deccanolestes, Sahnitherium, Bharattherium, and Kharmerungulatum have been recovered from it as well. A rich plant flora is known from the formation.
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".
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 whose research work is in the area of wood anatomy and paleontology.