What is the difference between hardwood and softwood?

When it comes to differentiating between hardwoods and softwoods, it's not a matter of hardness or density -- it's all about plant reproduction. Marshall explains what angiosperms and gymnosperms are in this episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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slash brain Stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff
works dot com where smart happens. H I am Marshall
Brain with today's question, what is the difference between a

(00:41):
hardwood and a soft wood? When we talk about a
hardwood floor, what are we actually talking about? As it
turns out, a hardwood is not necessarily a harder material.
It's not more dense or somehow stronger, and in the
same way, a soft wood is not necessarily a softer material,

(01:02):
meaning less dense or softer or less strong. For example,
balsa wood is one of the lightest, least dense woods.
There is easily dented with your fingernail and it's considered
a hardwood. So what's going on here. The distinction between
hardwood and softwood actually has to do with plant reproduction.

(01:24):
All trees reproduced by producing seeds, but the seeds structure varies.
Hardwood trees are angious sperms, plants that produce seeds with
some sort of covering. This might be a fruit like
an apple or a hard shell like an acorn. Soft Woods,
on the other hand, are gymnas sperms. These plants let

(01:48):
seeds fall to the ground as is, with no covering.
Pine trees, which grows seeds in hard cones, fall into
this category. In conifers, like pines, these eeds are released
into the wind once they mature. This spreads the plants
seed over a wider area. For the most part, angios

(02:09):
sperm trees lose their leaves during cold weather, while gymnasperms
trees keep their leaves all year round. So it's also
accurate to say that evergreens are soft woods and deciduous
trees or hardwoods. The hardwood softwood terminology does make some sense.
Evergreens do tend to be less dense than deciduous trees,

(02:31):
and therefore they're easier to cut. While most hardwoods tend
to be more dense and therefore sturdier, but as the
classification of bostil wood demonstrates, there's no minimum weight requirement
to become a hardwood. Be sure to check out our
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