Basics of Wood Anatomy

Wood anatomy, the study of woody cells and tissues, has made significant strides since the early descriptive accounts were made, which mainly involved cataloging the observable features of woody plants. Anatomical data have been utilized to gain a better understanding of the interrelationships between woody plants, confirming evidence of the natural relationships between plant families through combined analyses. This book will serve its purpose well for undergraduate students of Forestry. Wood is primarily composed of elongated, hollow cells arranged parallel to each other along the trunk of a tree. The characteristics of these fibrous cells and their arrangement affect various properties, including strength, appearance, resistance to water and chemical penetration, resistance to decay, and more. Just beneath the bark of a tree is a thin layer of cells called the cambium, which is not visible to the naked eye. Here, cells divide and eventually differentiate to form bark tissue on the outside of the cambium and wood or xylem tissue on the inside. This newly formed wood, known as sapwood, contains many living cells and conducts sap upward in the tree. Eventually, the inner sapwood cells become inactive and are transformed into heartwood. This transformation is often accompanied by the formation of extractives that darken the wood, make it less porous, and sometimes provide more resistance to decay. The center of the trunk is the pith, which is the soft tissue around which the first wood growth takes place in the newly formed twigs. This book will be helpful in imparting theoretical knowledge to undergraduate students, academicians, and teaching faculty in the field of woody plants in the disciplines of Forestry and Agriculture.