Welcome to Word of the Week! Stay tuned for a new word each Wednesday to amp up your nature vocabulary!
Heartwood [HART-wood] (noun): The most inner part of a tree trunk, consisting of hard and dense wood.
In contrast to the heartwood, the sapwood is one of the active layers of the tree, which lies just beneath the bark and carries water and sugar up the trunk.
Have you ever noticed trees that are hollow inside? This likely means the heartwood has rotted away, or been eaten up by insects or fungi. Amazingly, many trees can survive for a long time without their heartwood because the heartwood tissue is dead even in an intact tree!
Sammy Tangir - Sammy is a serious nature nerd and especially enthusiastic about plants! When she is not thinking of next week's nature word, she is working as an outdoor educator and practicing her wood carving skills.
