Is Sugar Maple A Hardwood Or A Softwood

Bigleaf maple is moderately hard.

Is sugar maple a hardwood or a softwood.

All maples are hardwoods but the species found in america are further classified as hard or soft maples. Now it may look like hard maple is heads and tails above the rest and to a certain extent it is but for reference black cherry has a janka hardness of 950 lb f the same as red maple and black walnut is rated at 1 010 lb f also note that black maple not pictured isn t quite as hard as its close relative hard maple and ranks in the mid range with a hardness of 1 180 lb f. The general designation of hardwood vs softwood is do they shed their leaves in the fall so maple is a hardwood. Photograph to the one of sugar maple presented earlier and you ll quickly no tice that the sugar maple pores are more widely scattered.

This is something to notice but by itself the pore spacing has no diagnostic value. Maple trees are one of the most common species of hardwoods in north american forests. Wikimedia commons coming to the reproductive description in botanical terms softwood trees are gymnosperms whereas hardwood trees are angiosperms the seeds of hardwood trees will have a shell or a fruit. The wood of soft maple is not as heavy or as strong as that of hard maple.

Pine is a softwood and thusly not near as strong or dense a maple. The maple tree is a member of a group of 200 species of trees and shrubs worldwide that belong to the acer family. Wood from trees with needles or scales is softwood. All of which are hardwoods because maple trees have leaves.

Typically hard maple is most often known as sugar maple. Janka ratings for maple range from 700 for silver maple to 1 180 for black maple. Wood from broad leaved deciduous trees is hardwood. Maple is the hardest of those woods.

Oak is a hardwood also but not a dense as maple. There are an abundance of variations of the maple but they are commonly placed into two categories hard maple and soft maple. The term hardwood and softwood refers to the type of leaves the tree has. Botanical difference between hardwood and softwood gymnosperms and angiosperms image.

The most common hard maple is the sugar or rock maple. Sugar maple large tree in the soapberry family sapindaceae native to eastern north america and widely grown as an ornamental and shade tree. It is commercially important as a source of maple syrup maple sugar and hardwood lumber useful in furniture manufacture and flooring. Silver maple red maple and boxelder are soft maples.