Structure of a Tree Flashcards
Where is the cambium layer in the cross-section of a tree?
Just below the bark
Where is the sapwood in the cross-section of a tree?
Below the cambium layer and above the heartwood
Where is the heartwood in the cross-section of a tree?
In the middle, just outside the medulla and inside the sapwood
Where is the medulla in the cross-section of a tree?
In the very center, inside the heartwood
What does bark do?
Protects wood from drying out
What is the cambium?
Growing tissue, forms wood inside and bark outside
What is the sapwood?
Living tissue, conducts sap from roots to leaves
What is the heartwood?
Dead tissue, usually darker in colour than the sapwood
What do the roots do?
Absorb water and mineral salts from soil and provides anchorage
What does the cell structure of a softwood look like?
Short amount of latewood and mostly earlywood throughout one growth ring.
Made of tracheids
What does the cell structure of a hardwood look like?
Short amount of latewood and mostly earlywood throughout one growth ring. Has a large vessel or pore in the earlywood with fibres between earlywood and latewood
What does the cross-section of a gymnosperm (softwood) look like?
Made up of multiple horizontal rows of tracheids with rays after around 10 rows of trachea
What does the cross-section of an angiosperm (hardwood) look like?
Made up of heaps of tiny fibres with large pores randomly dispersed
