Wood: classes and types

Here we would like to present some of our suppliers used wood species. 

MAPLE

Acer (maple) is a genus of trees or shrubs. They are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or (together with the Hippocastanaceae) included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification, favour inclusion in Sapindaceae. There are approximately 125 species, most of which are native to Asia, but several species also occur in Europe, northern Africa, and North America.

The word Acer is derived from a Latin word meaning "sharp" (referring to the characteristic points on the leaves) and was first applied to the genus by the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in 1700. The type species of the genus is Acer pseudoplatanus (Sycamore Maple).

Maples are mostly trees growing to 10-40 meters (30-130 ft) in height. Others are shrubs less than 10 metres tall with a number of small trunks originating at ground level. Most species are deciduous, but a few in southern Asia and the Mediterranean region are evergreen. Most are shade-tolerant when young, and are often late-successional in ecology; many of the smaller species are usually understory trees growing under the canopies of other larger trees, while the larger species eventually become dominant canopy trees. Maple root systems are typically dense and fibrous. A few species, notably Acer cappadocicum, frequently produce root sprouts, which can develop into clonal colonies.

BEECH

Beech (Fagus) is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe and North America.

The leaves of beech trees are entire or sparsely toothed, from 5-15 cm long and 4-10 cm broad. The flowers are small single-sex, wind-pollinated catkins, produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear. The bark is smooth and light gray. The fruit is a small, sharply 3-angled nut 10-15 mm long, borne in pairs in soft-spined husks 1.5-2.5 cm long, known as cupules. The nuts are edible, though bitter with a high tannin content, and are called beechmast.

Beech grows on a wide range of soil types, acid or basic, provided they are not waterlogged. The tree canopy casts dense shade, and carpets the ground with dense leaf litter, and the ground flora beneath may be sparse.

Beech was a late entrant to Great Britain after the last glaciation, and may have been restricted to basic soils in the south of England. The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods. Climate change is also having a negative impact on the beech in the south. This has led to a campaign by Friends of the Rusland Beeches and South Lakeland Friends of the Earth launched in 2007 to reclassify the beech as native in Cumbria. The campaign is backed by Tim Farron MP who has tabled a motion regarding the status of beech in Cumbria. Today, beech is widely planted for hedging and in deciduous woodlands, and mature, regenerating stands occur throughout mainland Britain below about 650 m.

The southern beeches Nothofagus previously thought closely related to beeches, are now treated as members of a separate family, Nothofagaceae. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia and South America.

The beech blight aphid (Grylloprociphilus imbricator) is a common pest of beech trees. Beeches are also used as food plants by some species of Lepidoptera (see list of Lepidoptera that feed on beeches).

Rubberwood

This wooden toys are made from sustainable and high quality wood which is collected from rubberwood plantations.
A rubber tree produces a commercially valuable sap, also known as latex. However, after around 25 years, a rubber tree will start to produce much less latex. These older trees are harvested so that new rubber trees can be planted. This process of recycling ensures that deforestation is never an issue.