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.
Is oak wood a hardwood or softwood.
Simple answer is that it is a hardwood.
Classifying wood as either a hardwood or softwood comes down to its physical structure and makeup and so it is overly simple to think of hardwoods as being hard and durable compared to soft and workable softwoods.
If it has needles it s considered a softwood.
But a hardwood is not necessarily a harder denser material than a softwood.
This happens to be generally true but there are exceptions such as in the cases of wood from yew trees a softwood that is relatively hard and wood from balsa trees a.
Popular hardwoods are hickory ash oak maple and most fruit trees.
If a tree drops its leaves it s considered a hardwood.
Botanical difference between hardwood and softwood gymnosperms and angiosperms image.
A similar size hardwood log can provide up to 50 more heat output than a softwood log.
However that doesn t mean there s not a place for softwoods.