This one requires a bit of explanation.
A hardwood tree has broad leaves--oaks, maples, birches. A softwood tree has needle leaves--pines and firs. Since no tree has both kinds of leaves, no tree can produce both hardwood and softwood.
Now...every tree contains heartwood and sapwood. The sapwood is to the outside and carries the sap from the roots to the leaves. Heartwood is inside the sapwood, and it's more dense because it gives the tree its strength. So, heartwood is harder than sapwood, but it's relative; maple sapwood is very hard compared to poplar heartwood.
Hardwoods usually came from angiosperm tress while softwoods came from gymnosperm tress. Both of these woods are very useful and have their own unique characteristics. Most timber came from softwoods as it is cheaper than hardwoods. However, if you're looking for quality and long lasting material, hardwood is the perfect choice. It is also easier to produce softwoods than hardwoods since it grows faster than the other. Common and useful examples of softwoods are cedar and pine while hardwoods are oak beam and mahogany.
All pines are Softwood - including Eastern White Pine. Softwoods are not necessarily softer than hardwoods. In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness, with the range in density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods; some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while the hardest hardwoods are much harder than any softwood.
It comes from deciduous trees and therefore loses its leaves in the winter and the trees are typically broadleafed. Hardwoods are typically denser and grow slower than softwoods, and usually have an open grain--like oak and ash, but can be closed grain-like maple and poplar. Hardwoods are typically not a knotty as softwoods, so have straighter, cleaner grain patterns. There are exceptions of course. Both balsa and English brown oak are considered hardwoods and both are soft enough to damage with bare hands.
Oak is one of the hardest woods known. Oak is prized for its hardness and durability. Softwoods include firs and pines. Both hardwoods and softwoods grow in forests in the earth's temperate zone. Most hardwoods are deciduous trees.
Both softwoods and hardwoods will decompose eventually. It is natures way to return nutrient back in to the soil, for the benefit of new life.
The term hardwood is used to describe wood from non-monocot angiosperm trees. In addition the term hardwoods is used for those trees themselves. These are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood contrasts with softwood, which comes from conifer trees. On average, hardwood is of higher density and hardness than softwood, but there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness in both groups, with the range in density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods; some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while yew is an example of a hard softwood. Please see related link below.
Hardwoods tend to be broadleafed and deciduous trees. To be more exact hardwood trees are both dicotyledons and angiosperms.
Redwood, cypress, and cedar are termite and rot resistant. These are softwoods and may not last as long as hardwoods.
i think there are male and female trees and there have to be both to pollinate, the males wont produce, just the females.
Softwood trees are any trees that have needle-like leaves, like pine trees, fir, redwood, or cedar. Hardwoods come from trees with broad leaves. Both varieties can be found almost anywhere worldwide.
The terms coniferous and deciduous refer to trees, rather than particular kinds of forests. Forests described as coniferous or deciduous are those containing primarily those kinds of trees. Coniferous trees are trees which don't change over the seasons, like evergreens and other pine trees.
they both produce things like cones and flowers and both have annual rings of xylem in the stems.