Non-food commodities

Softwoods

________: usually gymnosperms, tend to grow more quickly, are cheaper and easier to work with.

Bristlecone Pine

________: the oldest organisms that grow up to 5000 years old.

Sapwood

________ is the youngest xylem and functions in support and conduction.

Defoliant

________: a chemical that removes the leaves from trees and plants, used in warfare.

Synthetic rubber

________ was a response to the Japanese occupation of Malaya in WWII.

Flax

________ from Linum species is used to make linen.

Dr. Wangari Maathai

________: organized women in Kenya to plant 7 billion tree seedlings in three years.

Plywood

________: 3 or more layers of thick veneer glued together.

Hardwood

________: tend to be angiosperms (oak, walnut); more expensive and grows slower.

Sisal

________: from the agave plant is an example of a hard fiber (from leaves)

Bolls

________ are mature 50- 80 days after flowering.

Gymnosperms

________ only have tracheid and no vessel elements in the xylem so the wood isnt as hard.

Wollemi Pine

________: the rarest organism; found at an altitude of 2000 feet in a deep shaded sandstone gorge.

Mercerization

________: a finishing process for cotton that improves strength and luster.

Decortication

________: the unwanted tissues are scraped away by hand or machine.

rubber tree

The ________ is native to the Amazon region of South America.

Veneers

________: a very thin sheet of the desired wood glued to a base of less expensive lumber.

Plain sawed

________: the wood is cut tangential to annual rings and produces a straight grain.

Charles Goodyear

In 1839 ________ developed the process of vulcanization which improves elasticity.

Vulcanization

________: addition of sulfur to crosslink.

cotton gin

The ________ was invented in 1794 by Eli Whitney.

Natural Rubber

________ is still used for making radial tires.

Flax

________ has been used for 10, 000 years to make linen.

Latex

a mixture of organic compounds produced by lacifiers, single cells which form a network of tubes

The herring-bone method

cutting progressively as the V-shaped cut made to the bark of the tree can be re-opened at regular intervals

Plant for the Planet

An Environmental Program started in 2006 by the UN to plant a billion trees

Quarter-sawed

the wood is sawed into quarters and then along the radius, produces radial cuts

Textiles (for making fabric), cordage (rope), filler (stuffing for the mattress)

Uses of plant fibers

Surface Fibers

on the surface of seeds, fruits, or leaves

Cotton

Example of Surface fiber

Bast Fiber

(aka soft fiber) phloem fibers in the inner bark of dicot stems

linen

Example of soft fiber

Retting

a process that uses microbial action to degrade the soft tissues, leaving the rough fiber strands intact and freed

Hard Fiber

from vascular bundles (xylem and Phloem) of leaves, these fibers contain lignin too

sisal

Example of hard fiber

Ginning

the way a machine tears the fibers lose

Sizing

the application of materials to the yarn or fabric that produces stiffness or firmness

Styrene Butadiene

the 1st synthetic rubber produced.

Thailand

the biggest producer of Natural rubber

They’re planting monocultures

the biggest problem with reforestation programs

Egyptians

credited with inventing paper