What is the difference between hardwood and softwood trees?
There are a couple of ways to answer this question. The terms hardwood and softwood are often used to differentiate between two distinct groups of trees. Hardwoods may also be called deciduous or broad leaved trees and refer to the type of leaves and flowers they produce. Softwoods are also commonly referred to as coniferous or cone bearing species, describing their method of reproduction which involves the formation of both male and female cones or flowers on each individual tree. If the question is, what makes some woods harder than others, then the answer has to do with the internal structure of the wood itself. Wood is actually made up of millions of tiny tube-like vessels stacked together. The smaller and denser the tubes are packed together, the harder and more dense the wood. It is ultimately this arrangement of vessels that determines the physical characteristics of wood.
