by Eric Meier

Amidst the daunting jungle of hardwood species, (where there are several hundred commercial species used worldwide, with many thousands more that are intermittently seen in woodworking applications), the world of conifers is much more limited. With perhaps only a few dozen chief species worldwide, and only a few hundred species (rather than thousands) that are ever harvested for wood, softwoods represent a comparatively smaller percentage of the diversity seen in wood.

However, softwoods are also much simpler than hardwoods in their anatomical features, so there are far fewer clues to help identify them. Consequently, macroscopic softwood identification is usually less conclusive, and many times will only result in more broad or generic identifications, such as, pine (Pinus spp.) or spruce (Picea spp.), rather than determining an exact species.

The primary distinguishing feature between softwoods and hardwoods is that softwood species lack pores. So upon initial examination of an unknown wood sample, the most immediate detail to note is whether or not the endgrain section has numerous circular openings—commonly referred to as vessels or pores.

With hardwoods, the most conspicuous anatomical feature is the pores, which serves to initially separate hardwoods based upon the various distributions of their pores. However, because softwoods are poreless, another conspicuous and easily recognizable anatomical feature is used instead to quickly make broad distinctions between conifers.