Question

What is true of heartwood?
A) It does not help in water transport
B) It is resistant to bacterial infection
C) It is made up of degenerated cells
D) All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue (made up of a group of cells) that is found in the stems and roots of the trees. Wood is an organic material which is made up of cellulose fibres that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin that resist compression.

Complete answer:
>Heart wood: Heartwood is a term which is used to describe the wood found in the centre of the tree. It is the wood that is found near the pith of the stem or branch.
>Heartwood is also called as duramen or dead wood of trees.
>Heartwood usually contains tannins or other substances that make it dark in colour and sometimes aromatic as chandan wood.
>Heartwood is mechanically strong, resistant to decay and less easily penetrated by wood preservative chemicals.

Characteristics of heartwood:
- Heartwood does not help in water transport because many chemical substances like tannin, lignin, etc. get accumulated in the dead cells of heartwood.
- Heartwood consists of the dead and degenerated cells.
- Heartwood consists of the chemicals like tarpenes, phenols, etc which makes it resistant to decay and bacterial infection.
- Therefore, it has been clear from the above discussion that all the statements given in the question regarding heartwood are correct.

Hence, option D is the correct option for this question.

Note: Wood is used for many important purposes like in order to make furniture, tools, houses and many more things. Chemically a wood composed of Carbon, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Potassium, Magnesium, Iron, Manganese, etc. Chemical composition of wood varies from species to species.