Barbara Hair replied “I work in a public high school and have consulted two of my colleagues, a Biology teacher and an Environmental Science teacher.
When you look up the definition in the dictionary it says that wood is a hard fibrous substance, basically xylem, that makes up the greater part of the stems and branches of trees or shrubs. Wood is beneath the bark & is found to a limited extent in herbaceous plants. Xylem is the complex tissue in the vascular system of higher plants that consists of vessels and supports storage as in a stem. Herbaceous plants are a plants lacking in a permanent woody stem and many are found in flowering garden plants or herbs.
Rattan is a climbing palm vine and reed comes from its core. The environmental teacher writes “In horticulture, we speak of “woody plants vs. herbaceous plants.” Woody plants are those that add to their solid structure year after year as opposed to those plants that have to re grow either from roots, bulbs, etc. Grasses generally are considered herbaceous, but there are exceptions like bamboo, which is really a big grass plant. He feels that rattan is wood due to its structure, but honeysuckle is not wood because generally vinery plants are not considered wood. River cane is technically a grass like larger bamboo, but could be considered woody because of their structure as well. The plants vascular system does play a roll in calling things woody. Woody plants are thought of as more developed and therefore a higher class of plants. Grapevines are in in the gray area between woody and herbaceous plants. So he feels reed is in the wood family. My Biology friend had a more simplified answer. Reed is not wood. Woody plants really have specialized cells to produce the thickened cuticle we call bark and vinery plants do not. So in her opinion it has to have bark to be considered woody.
So what does rattan look like in the wild? I have no idea and I guess the answer to the original question is that it depends on whom you ask. I personally feel that reed is not wood. I am guessing that the individuals who make up the categories for competitions have not gone into such depth on the woody vs. herbaceous plants. I also feel that it is not wood because of the process that is involved in dying reed. We don’t take wood and boil it to dye because it would be ruined. Reed on the other hand is very tough and can take all kinds of abuse because of its structure. I would not have thought of river can as wood either. In my opinion plants don’t have bark so they have to be tougher throughout their structure. Bark is the protector of wood, which makes wood very different. Anyway it is an interesting topic.
Barbara Hair, contributor
Barbara Hair is an ONABA board member who lives in Tulsa, OK, and works in the Jenks public schools. She is an accomplished basket weaver and teacher. She has learned the traditional diagonal double weave, and has held ONABA weave ins at her home. ONABA is fortunate to have a talented and willing volunteer.
June 10, 2006