• Question: why does wood have holes in patterns on its surface?

    Asked by lidiadawolf to Stuart on 28 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Stuart Archer

      Stuart Archer answered on 28 Jun 2013:

      The holes and ‘knots’ you see in wood come from parts of the tree where side branches start to grow out of the main trunk. If the knot is from a branch that’s died, then the tree starts to grow around it so the knot is no longer attached to the wood – this is why you might see wood with large holes in it where you’d expect a knot to be!

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