Lignum est Vita

If you enter a forest of spruce trees, you can smell their intense, enveloping scent, listen to the silence around you as you walk on the soft carpet of needles that forms at the foot of the trees, and enjoy the cool shade under their canopy. It is part of the evergreen conifer family, but takes its name from the reddish-brown color of its bark. Its needle-like leaves are dark green, prickly, and arranged in a spiral pattern on the branches, and its white wood is known for its extraordinary rigidity in relation to its lightness. For this reason, it is widely used in construction, but thanks to its fine grain and lack of knots, it is used for many other purposes, from fruit crates to musical instruments. It has a remarkable elasticity that allows the sound of the piano, harpsichord, double bass, harpsichord, harp, and zither to resonate. Its lymphatic channels are tiny organ pipes that resonate with the notes produced by the violin, viola, and cello. The Book of Trees indicates December 24 as the period of the Spruce. It is the winter solstice, the feast of the victorious Sun that Christians associate with Jesus Christ and therefore place his date of birth between December 24 and 25. It is quite likely that, for this very reason, the Spruce later became the Christmas Tree for everyone.

It extends both in space and time: its imposing branches spread out in all directions, forming a broad crown that reaches 30 meters at its peak, while some specimens, such as those still living in Villa Taranto on Lake Maggiore, are over 400 years old. In Italy, it extends to over 1,000 meters in the Apennine and Alpine mountains and, due to its longevity, is one of the most reliable and trustworthy witnesses of history: under the monumental canopy of the Castagno dei 100 Cavalli (Chestnut Tree of 100 Horses), which has stood on the slopes of Mount Etna for over 2,200 years, Giovanna d'Aragona and her escort took shelter from a violent storm. Its leaves are large and oval, lanceolate and serrated at the edges, and the male and female flowers grow on the same tree, which is characterized by strong, durable wood, coffee-milk in color and rich in tannins, with obvious veins, a coarse texture, and an astringent smell. Due to its high resistance to biological degradation, chestnut wood is used in the construction of fences, furniture, travertine, doors, windows, stairs, and roof frames, while in the past, farmers used its straight branches to make baskets, panniers, panniers, and other useful objects for the home and work.

The bark, soft and fibrous, can be cut into long, thin strips that are highly resistant to traction and alteration, an essential characteristic for the construction of poles, boats, shingles, fine woodwork, doors and windows of all kinds, bed slats, and handicrafts. The cedar, belonging to the Cupressaceae family, can live up to 1,000 years and reach a height of 70 meters with a rapidly expanding crown made up of dark green or bluish needle-like leaves, often covered with a thin layer of white bloom. Its reddish wood remains resistant even a century after the tree has been felled, thanks to the production of a fungicidal chemical, Thujaplicin, which remains active for a long time. Its fame is also due to the favorable relationship between several parameters—price, lightness, strength, elasticity, and durability—which make it one of the best woods for large constructions in the building sector, such as sports halls and exhibition pavilions. The indigenous peoples of America used Western Red Cedar to build their homes and hollowed out entire trunks to create canoes and totem poles.

t has a shiny, silvery-gray bark that peels off in strips, while the inside is pinkish-brown with a light, yellowish hue, making the surface ideal for cabinetmaking, wood veneers, and the production of luxury doors and windows. Its snow-white flowers bloom at the end of April, followed by oval, pointed, serrated leaves. Eventually, a fleshy drupe ripens, ranging in color from bright red to dark purple, which is used in Alsace, Germany, and Switzerland to produce Kirsch brandy, and in England to make cherry brandy. But the cherry tree knows no boundaries and is an object of worship in Japan. In spring, its blossoming is greeted with long pilgrimages and crowded celebrations, while the ancient festival called Hanami, the Night of the Cherry Trees, expresses some of the most representative principles of Japanese philosophy: patience, respect for nature, and inner peace. The falling of the flowers is a spectacle admired by all the Japanese people, who during those spring days take the opportunity to reflect on the ephemeral value of life and give thanks to the gods for a future eternal blessing.

Native to northwestern America, it grows spontaneously in well-exposed locations and fresh, fertile, deep soil with high atmospheric humidity. It has gray-brown bark that turns reddish-brown or purplish with age, with deep cracks visible to the naked eye. The male flowers are yellow in the loose part of the branch, while the female flowers are green and pink at the tip of the branch and arranged in separate clusters on the same plant. The fruits are light brown hanging cones with long protruding three-lobed bracts, while the needle-like, spirally arranged leaves have resinous and aromatic properties: when rubbed, they give off a lemon scent. But it is the scent of Douglas wood that takes us back to the typical atmosphere of old-fashioned carpentry workshops, when you could walk in with your eyes closed and recognize the craft that was carried out there every day. Today, the industrial sector appreciates its lightness and strength for producing doors, floors, windows, bridges, houses, boats, or for making high-quality veneers and plywood. Due to its geometric and elegant triangular crown and slender shape, this tree, belonging to the Pinaceae family, is found in many gardens as a pleasant ornamental element, especially for its green needles with gray or blue hues.

Arranged alternately on the branch, the leaves appear on nature's stage in autumn with spectacular colors, ranging from yellow-orange to red-brown, contributing to the creation of memorable fairy-tale landscapes. The fruits are acorns which, once stripped of their poisonous pericarp, were roasted instead of chestnuts, or toasted to make a coffee-like drink, or ground during long periods of famine to produce providential flour. The oil extracted from the seeds is pale in color and sweetish in taste, used in cooking as a condiment or as fuel, while beech wood is used for heating due to its long burning time. It is homogeneous and heavy, lacking in elasticity but very resistant, ideal for turning or for the production of stairs, doors and windows, chairs, furniture, guitars, and pianos. In the mid-19th century, the ingenious Austrian craftsman Michael Thonet invented a system for bending beech wood using a combination of pressure and steam, which enabled him to build highly acclaimed furniture that influenced the styles of the time. Today, his Vienna chairs made of beech and woven straw are antiques, while in the early 20th century, the model no. 14 he designed was one of the best-selling chairs with 50 million pieces sold.

The Greeks exploited its hardness and compactness to make bows and spears, weapons that proved to be elastic and non-deformable during battles, while in the skies of the two World Wars, combat aircraft flew—the Italian Caproni Ca.33 biplane and the British De Havilland DH.98 Mosquito monoplane—with ash wood structures. The tree belongs to the Oleaceae family and over time has spread from the Atlantic coasts of Northern Europe to the Caspian Sea and from the north of the Alps to Central Italy in fertile, cool, deep soils. It can reach heights of up to 45 meters and dies young after 120-150 years of life, just enough time to create an empty space around itself, extending its roots in all directions, thus preventing the growth of other vegetation and favoring, especially in autumn, the display of its bright yellow pinnate leaves. The flowers are corn-shaped and yellowish-green in color, mostly hermaphroditic and fragrant, blooming in spring before the leaves, above a straight and slender trunk with dull, grayish bark. The fruit contains many seeds that become food for birds and small mammals, while in August a sugary juice is extracted from the bark through an incision, which coagulates to form manna, a substance that, according to the Bible, the Israelites ate during their journey through the desert.

The larch is one of the few conifers that sheds its leaves in winter, offering hikers the chance to admire its elegant nakedness: slender and straight trunk, covered with thick, cracked, reddish-brown bark. But this tree is also valuable for its ability to colonize arid and degraded land, benefiting the forest community that has spread throughout Central Europe, from the Alps to the Western Carpathians, since its origin. It prefers sunny, dry places and cannot tolerate the humidity of the soil from which it rises up to 40 meters, forming a narrow, conical crown that flattens at the top over time. In spring, it is one of the first trees to produce needle-like leaves that grow up to 3 centimeters long on short twigs. Its bark is used to extract tannins, which are useful in the tanning and dyeing industries, while its wood is used to distill ethyl alcohol. After cutting, the larch has a yellowish sapwood and a reddish-brown heartwood, which is hard and resinous to the touch, solid and durable in performance. It is mainly used in shipyards for the construction of large boats and in craft workshops for the production of stairs, furniture, doors and windows, and shingles, while in the past it was used to make wine and vinegar barrels. A substance called Venice turpentine is extracted from its resin, and Briançon manna, a whitish sugary product, is obtained from its leaves. This is formed thanks to insect bites on the leaves and young branches.

The species Swietenia mahagoni, belonging to the Meliaceae family, was exploited without restraint in the past and without any planned control by the states that owned the forests. As a result, the most widely used mahogany today is Swietenia macrophylla, which is widespread in continental America, from Mexico to Brazil. Other species similar to true mahogany, the American variety, are the so-called mahogany-like woods—Tiama, Kaya, Sapelli, Sipo, Kosipo, and Okoumè—which come mainly from the African continent. The richness of the species is balanced by the great variety of colors of the wood: the sapwood is yellowish, the heartwood is yellow or salmon pink, which over time becomes reddish brown or golden red. The grain, sometimes straight, sometimes intersecting, expresses its almost baroque elegance, while its hardness and compactness translate into mechanical performance in terms of resistance to compression, thermal shock, bending, and wear over time. This is why mahogany is used in luxury designs in the cabinetmaking, interior design, construction, and nautical sectors, while its ability to give sound a warm, full-bodied, and balanced tone makes it ideal for use in the stringed instrument industry for the creation of harps and pianos. Thanks to the porosity and harmonic response of wood, the electric and acoustic guitars of renowned luthier Paul Reed Smith are made of mahogany, as is the legendary Gibson Les Paul model designed in 1952, one of the most famous guitars in rock history.

Walnut wood was used to make the propellers of World War I aircraft because only thanks to its elasticity could aeronautical engineers create the complex shape capable of withstanding the strong rotations at high altitudes. Native to Europe and Southwest Asia, this plant, belonging to the Juglandaceae family, can live for up to a century and reach a height of 30 meters, from where, in October, the blackened husks release the well-known fruit with its toasted flavor. From its stocky trunk, it stretches out into large, gnarled branches that extend into increasingly thin twigs to form a broad, round crown with dark green, leathery leaves. It suffers from cold and drought and prefers deep, soft soil where its taproots spread far and wide to absorb large amounts of salts. It needs space and light for its broad canopy and therefore lives a secluded life: it emits a substance, juglone, which prevents other trees from growing next to it and is also unwelcoming to birds, which do not choose it as a nesting place. Despite this unsociable behavior, it was once customary in some regions of France to give a young walnut tree to newborn girls, who would then grow up with the plant, and when they married, they would use its wood to build their wedding bed.

It belongs to the Pinaceae family and its leaves are needle-like, stiff and prickly, while its fruits are oval pinecones that are light brown or grayish in color, with a round base and a sharp tip. It can grow up to 50 meters tall, but remains slender into old age, as it can live for almost three centuries and, in extreme cases, reach the age of 500 years. Under the ground, it develops a taproot system that penetrates deep into the soil, even into aquifers, and above ground, it has a conical appearance when young, becoming pyramidal as it grows. It is a hermaphroditic tree: both male flowers—yellow ovoid cones—and female flowers, small greenish strobili, coexist on the same plant. Its wood is rich in resin with a medium texture and straight grain: the yellowish or whitish tone of the sapwood around it differs from the color of the heartwood in the center. The industry uses it in several sectors: in the nautical and construction industries for building, in architecture and design for doors and windows, in stringed instrument making for instruments, in furniture making for furniture, and in packaging for packaging. Today, the essential oil known for its balsamic scent and revitalizing properties against fatigue and stress is obtained from the distillation of the twigs, while in ancient times doctors distilled its resin, turpentine, to obtain pitch.

This is also why the oak is one of the longest-living tree species on Earth, with specimens living up to 500 years in acidic soils, where they grow to over 40 meters in height, forming large, open, dome-shaped crowns. This is how it gives life to large forests through leathery, oblong leaves with 5 to 9 pairs of rounded, dark green lobes. The bark is ground into powder to obtain tannin for the tanning industry, but its astringent properties are also used in medicine: the Greeks and Romans extracted tannins from acorns and used their properties to treat dysentery, hemorrhages, and fever symptoms. Cognac is aged inside French oak barrels, and the wood imparts to red wines the tannic aroma sought after by expert tasters. The wood is difficult to work with due to its toughness, but it is used to produce luxury furniture, doors and windows, carpentry structures, products for the nautical sector, bridges, and Venetian mooring posts. In the past, an entire forest was needed to build warships and cargo ships, such as those of the East India Company, which needed the strength of oak to transport goods in the 1600s.

The Red Grandis is a generous tree: it provides timber, shelter, and shade to many poor populations around the world. Thanks to its remarkable resistance to harsh and inhospitable environments, since 1960 it has spread beyond its native continent of Oceania, doubling its presence in Brazil and especially in Uruguay, now the world's leading exporter. It belongs to the Myrtaceae family, which includes almost 700 species, many of which are tree-like and prone to losing their highly flammable leaves. It prefers deep, sandy soils that allow the roots to breathe, feed the hermaphroditic flowers shaped like closed cups, and nourish its fruits, dry capsules with small holes from which the seeds emerge. The pollen and nectar are used to make honey known for its antibacterial and antiseptic properties, used to treat wounds, while the oil is used to create pleasant-smelling perfumes and soaps that are popular in the cosmetics industry. A kilo of its leaves is the main diet of the koala: humans harvest them to produce eucalyptol, a selected mixture of terpenes for the treatment of the respiratory tract. Due to its natural propensity to ignite and fuel fire, it is used as a fuel, and its regular grain makes it a versatile material for the production of structural components. In recent years, it has also proven to be resistant to insect damage, which is why it is chosen for the production of exterior elements such as window frames.

The best quality is Burma: it is widespread in the state of Myanmar, in areas with deep, alluvial soils. The climate there alternates between dry seasons and monsoon periods, with temperatures between 27 and 36 degrees, which is ideal for teak trees. Its wood is saturated with oils that make the surface waterproof and prevent the growth of fungi. It resists everything: water, bad weather, termites, and time. Many of the temples built in Asia are more than a millennium old: some have been standing for 2,000 years and are still in good condition thanks to teak. Piers, pool decks, parquet flooring, outdoor structures, sailboat decks: teak is perfect for structures that must withstand soaking and the resulting expansion and contraction between wet and dry conditions. It has only one drawback: the amount of silica it contains can wear down the cutting blades of tools, but with its golden brown color, fine texture, and light grain, it is one of the most beautiful woods to look at. For several years now, it has also been widely cultivated in the tropical and subtropical areas of Africa and Central and South America, but the results in terms of weight and mechanical strength are inferior to those of Asian teak, which is in high demand in cabinet making for its grain and quality, which it retains even after drying. Tea is made from its bark or leaves, which is consumed by the populations of India and the Philippines in cases of fever. Tea is made from its bark or leaves, which people in India and the Philippines drink to treat fever, headaches, and indigestion.

Outside, the trunk is recognizable by its gnarled and twisted appearance, which does not exceed 1 meter in diameter, while it extends into branches up to a maximum height of 20 meters. Inside, however, it is recognizable by the sharp contrast in color between the milky white, almost yellow sapwood and the dark brown heartwood with blackish veins. Its hardness makes the wood difficult to saw and drill with nails and screws, but Wengè repays that work with elegantly designed objects of great aesthetic appeal, especially in the furniture sector. Although the long drying and seasoning time increases its cost, it has mechanical characteristics that companies exploit to produce stairs, indoor and outdoor flooring, vehicle floors, and sports equipment, while its attractive appearance, created by fine, dense grain in a medium to coarse texture, makes it perfect for decorative panels, veneer, rifle stocks, and sculptures. African populations attribute magical properties to it: the belief is that when used to make artifacts, Wengè wood releases, through them, all the vital energy accumulated during the growth of the plant. Its clear tonal potential can be heard in the sound produced by electric guitars and basses, as well as by the drums of the indigenous peoples of the Congo.