Ass #2: Engineering Shopwork 1

1. What is tree?

Tree is a woody perennial plant having a single usually elongate main stem generally with few or no
branches on its lower part. It is also defined as something that having a permanently woody main
stem or trunk, ordinarily growing to a considerable height, and usually developing branches at some
distance from the ground. Trees can live for many years. The oldest tree ever discovered is
approximately 5,000 years old and the oldest tree from the UK is about 1,000. The four main parts of a
tree are the roots, the trunk, the branches, and the leaves.

2. Identify the following:

a. Tree shape
When choosing trees to plant, it’s important to pick ones whose shape fits in with your overall design.
Since every tree is different, naming the shapes is something less than an exact science, but in general
they tend to fall into categories. The following are the types of a tree according to its shape:
Columnar Shaped Trees

Columnar trees are tall and very thin, with upright branches. Their vertical shape adds height and also
provides great screening without taking up much room in the landscape.

Pyramidal or Conical Shaped Trees

Pyramidal trees are wider at the bottom, with a main center trunk and horizontal branches. The
branches may start at ground level or higher up the trunk. Conical trees are similar but are usually more
slender and bullet-shaped. These trees are very dramatic and need space to reach their full width.

Vase Shaped Trees

Vase shaped trees are just what they sound like: a central trunk that branches into an upright, arching
shape that’s widest at the top. Vase-shaped trees are graceful and perfect for lining walkways, because
they offer both shade and headroom.

Round or Oval Shaped Trees

These trees are upright, with a central strong trunk that branches into a dense round or oval-shaped
crown. They make strong shade and may have such dense foliage that the branches are concealed.

Spreading or Open Shaped Trees

These trees have an open, irregular shape that may be wider than it is tall. Some are towering skyline
trees, and others are smaller, bushy specimen trees. They generally make dappled shade and are great
for softening buildings.

Weeping Shaped Trees

Weeping trees have flexible, long branches that hang down and may even touch the ground. The shape
of these trees is often irregular and dramatic, making them an excellent specimen or accent tree.
Weeping trees should not be planted near walkways or streets where the hanging branches would get in
the way or need to be pruned.

Umbrella Shaped Trees

Umbrella-shaped trees have fairly high branches that spread

wide to make an umbrella canopy. If the branches are high enough, these trees are perfect for shading
sitting areas or patios, because they naturally leave a clear view underneath.

b. Growing environment

Trees differ according to its own habitat. The following are the types of a tree according to its growing
environment:

Forest trees

Forest trees are one of the world's most important natural resources. Fast growing trees with
low lignin content could provide significant practical benefits. Removal of lignin from the wood
cell walls is the most capital intensive and environmentally problematic step in wood processing
for pulp and paper.
Grassland Trees

Grassland trees are trees that grow on the North American prairie include red oaks, Burr oaks and plains
cottonwoods. Many of these trees mark where homesteads were many years ago. The North American
prairie has enough precipitation to support grasses, but generally not many trees, since drought and fire
inhibit their growth.

Desert Trees

Desert trees are types of trees in a region of land that is very dry because it receives low amounts of
precipitation (usually in the form of rain, but it may be snow, mist or fog), often has little coverage by
plants, and in which streams dry up unless they are supplied by water from outside the area.

Tundra Trees

Tundra is a type of biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short
growing seasons. The word "tundra” usually refers only to the areas where the subsoil
is permafrost, or permanently frozen soil. Scattered trees grow in some tundra regions.
 3. Define the 3 components of a tress

The three components of a tree consist of:

a. Root

The root of a tree is a typically fairly shallow, frequently no

deeper than 2 m, but is wide-spreading, with the majority of roots found in the upper 60cm of
soil. Roots absorb water and nutrients from the soil, serve as a store for carbohydrates and
form a structural system which supports the trunk and crown.

b. Trunk

The trunk is the stem and main wooden axis of a tree which functions to support the crown and
transport water and elements from the roots to the leaves located in the crown and transport sugar
from the leaves to parenchyma in the trunk and roots. It is also defined as the most important part of
the tree for timber production.

c. Crown

The crown of a tree is the branches, leaves, and reproductive structures extending from the
trunk or main stems. It consists of the entire collection of lateral branches connected to the trunk,
which bear leaves and reproductive structures, such as flowers and fruits.
 4. Describe the anatomy of a tree

The major parts of a tree are leaves, flowers and fruit, trunk and branches, and roots.

LEAVES

Leaves are basically sheets of spongy living cells connected by tubular conducting cells to the plumbing
system of the tree. They are connected to the air around them by openings called stomates, and
protected from dehydration by external wax layers. Leaves also carry out photosynthesis, making food
for the tree and releasing oxygen into the air. And this tells us much about their shapes. 

TRUNK AND BRANCHES

While branches and trunks may seem to be "just made of wood,"

this material (and the bark around it) consists of many types of cells
adapted for strength, resistance to injury and decay, transport of
liquids, and storage of starch and other materials.
The trunk of a tree is made up of five different layers.

A. The outer bark is the tree's protection from the outside world.

Continually renewed from within, it helps keep out moisture in
the rain and prevents the tree from losing moisture when the air
is dry. It insulates against cold and heat and wards off insect
enemies.

B. The inner bark, or “phloem,” is the pipeline through which food is passed to the rest of the tree.
It lives for only a short time then dies and turns to cork to become part of the protective outer
bark.

C. The cambium cell layer is the growing part of the trunk. It annually produces new bark and new
wood in response to hormones that pass down through the phloem with food from the leaves.
These hormones, called “auxins,” stimulate growth in cells. Auxins are produced by leaf buds at
the ends of branches as soon as they start growing in the spring.

D. Sapwood is the tree's pipeline for water moving up to the leaves. Sapwood is new wood. As
newer rings of sapwood are laid down, inner cells lose their vitality and turn to heartwood.

E. Heartwood is the central, supporting pillar of the tree. Although dead, it will not decay or lose
strength while the outer layers are intact. A composite of hollow, needlelike cellulose fibers
bound together by a chemical glue called lignin, it is in many ways as strong as steel. Set
vertically, a 1" x 2" cross section that is 12" long can support twenty tons.

Roots
Contrary to popular belief, tree roots are typically found in the top three feet of the soil. They also
expand well beyond the dripline, often occupying an area two to four times the size of the tree crown.
Each part of a root helps the root carry out its functions. The root cap found at the far tip of
the root protects the root as it continues to grow underground. Root hairs are small thread-
like structures that help the root absorb water and minerals from the soil.

5. Define the 4 factors that the bark serve as protectors

Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees,
woody vines, and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside the vascular cambium and is a
nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. Technically
speaking, bark is not necessarily a scientific term. Bark is considered an accumulation of several different
outer layers of a wood plant.  There are four different factors of how bark serve as protectors of trees.

a. It helps keep out moisture in the rain that prevents the tree from losing moisture when the air
is dry
- The outer bark, the periderm, consists of several layers of more compressed cells. It is the tree’s
protection from the outside world. Some of these are cork cells, which are covered in a special
type of wax and don’t collapse when they die. This helps keep the inner bark from drying out,
and insures the plant can continue to move sugars from the leaves to where they are needed.

b. It wards off insect enemies

- Trees use their outer bark for different purposes, but mainly for protection from predators.
Insects and herbivores want to eat the leaves off woody plants. These plants are often protected
by thick bark past where local herbivores can reach.

c. It composed of living tissues

- The inner bark is composed of living tissues, which help translocate the sugars created in the
leaves to other parts of the plant that happens in the secondary phloem. Outside of the
secondary phloem, cells began to die off, and the layers begin to compress. These layers are
responsible for providing protection.

d. It stimulate growth in cells

- The cambium cell layer is the growing part of the trunk. It annually produces new bark and new
wood in response to hormones that pass down through the phloem with food from the leaves.
These hormones, called auxins that stimulate growth in cells.
 6. Describe the 2 distinct bands of growth ring

Growth ring, in a cross section of the stem of a woody plant, is the increment of wood added during a
single growth period. It is also defined as a layer of wood formed in a plant during a single period of
growth. They represent layers of cells produced by vascular cambium. Growth rings are visible because
of macroscopic differences in structure between earlywood and latewood—the two distinct bands of
growth ring.

Earlywood

- Earlywood is the light-colored wood made by a tree in the spring that shows up in

the yearly growth ring. It is also referred to a wood in a growth ring of a tree that is produced
early in the growing season and is softer and more porous than latewood. It is also called
springwood.

Latewood

- The part of the wood in a growth ring of a tree that is produced later in the growing season. The
cells of late wood are smaller and have thicker cell walls than those produced earlier in the
season. It also referred to a wood that is formed late in a tree’s growing season and which forms
the darker part of the annual ring of growth. It is also called summerwood.

To sum it all up, when water and sunshine are abundant, trees grow lightly colored, porous, and thin
walled cells called earlywood. However, when temps are cold and dry, trees put on a layer of darker,
dense, thick walled cells called latewood.
 7. Differentiate hardwood and softwood

Hardwood and softwood are distinguished botanically in terms of their reproduction, not by their end
use or appearance. All trees reproduce by producing seeds, but the seed structure varies. Different types
of construction projects call for different kinds of timber, both hardwood and softwood are used for
everything from structural to decorative. However, there are a lot of differences between a hardwood
and softwood.

Hardwood

Hardwood comes from a deciduous tree, which loses its leaves annually. It tend to be slower growing,
and are therefore usually more-dense. In addition, hardwood is an angiosperm, a plant that produces
seeds with some sort of covering such as a shell or a fruit. Angiosperms usually form flowers to
reproduce. Birds and insects attracted to the flowers carry the pollen to other trees and when fertilized
the trees form fruits or nuts and seeds. These include eucalypts, beech and black wood.
Softwood

Softwood comes from a conifer, which usually remains evergreen. Softwood are known as a
gymnosperm. Gymnosperms reproduce by forming cones which emit pollen to be spread by the wind to
other trees. Pollinated trees form naked seeds which are dropped to the ground or borne on the wind so
that new trees can grow elsewhere. Some examples of softwood include pine, redwood, douglas-fir,
cypresses and larch.

8. Give 10 examples of tree that is being used in construction

9. Define the unit of measurement used in computing the volume of lumber

The board foot is a unit of measurement for the volume of lumber. It is the volume of a one-foot length
of a board one foot wide and one inch thick. Board foot can be abbreviated FBM, which means Foot,
Board Measure. It can be calculated by multiplying the thickness in inches (T) by the width (W) and the
length (L) in feet and dividing it by 12.

Formula:

Board Foot = (T) (W) (L) ÷12

One board foot equals:

 1 ft × 1 ft × 1 in
 12 in × 12 in × 1 in
 144 in3
 1/12 ft3
 ≈ 2360 cm3
 ≈ 2.36 liters
 ≈ 0.00236 cubic meters or steres
 1/1980 Petrograd Standard of board