Trees, and their derivative products, have been used by societies around the world for thousands of years. Contemporary construction of tall buildings from timber, in whole or in part, suggests a growing interest in the potential for building with wood at a scale not previously attainable. As wood...

This is a commentary on a research by Debra-Maceluch et al. in the issue of New Phytologist (pp. 297-312), which provides unprecedented insights into the composition of wood cell walls and reveal a novel function of xylan glucuronosylation in the fastening of suberin-like compounds in wood cell...

The raising stock of hardwood and the increasing popularity to build with timber are strong drivers to use hardwood as structural material on a regular basis. Despite its outstanding mechanical properties, economic boundary conditions in producing structural hardwood products consequence, however,...

This paper characterizes Erythrina fusca Lour. in terms of anatomical, morphological and chemical properties to evaluate its efficacy as a pulping raw material. It is characterized with 47.0% α-cellulose and 28.8% lignin content with a fibre length of 1.11 mm. The vessels (pores) are distinct and...

Fraud and misrepresentation in forest products supply chains is often associated with illegal logging, but the extent of fraud in the U.S. forest products market, and the availability of forensic expertise to detect it, is unknown. We used forensic wood anatomy to test 183 specimens from 73...

Albasia (Albizia falcataria), known as sengon wood, is a fast-growing tree species commonly found in Indonesian forests and community plantations. However, the low-density, hardness, and strength significantly restrict its commercial application. The purpose of this study was to determine the...

The effect of sanding, as the last operation before finishing, on the quality of heat treated wood surfaces has been insufficiently explored and explained. This paper compared the effects of sanding with three commonly used sanding grit sizes P60, P100, and P150 on the surface roughness values of...

Bio-based building materials are susceptible to degradation by decay fungi when exposed to favourable conditions for fungal growth. The risk of decay depends on both the environmental conditions and material resistance. Although durability data is available for solid wood, standard tests mainly...

A conventional stereo light microscope was used to image polished wood surfaces at cellular resolution over size scales of the growth ring or larger. Bandpass filtering and local area contrast enhancement were used to aid automatic image thresholding and binarisation. An estimate for the location...