A Blog by John Halkett

Month: June 2019

More than just wine bottle stoppers

Cork oak, Quercus suber a medium-sized, evergreen tree is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa. It grows to up to 20 metres, although it is typically more stunted in its native environment.

Cork oaks commonly live more than 200 years. Cork harvesting is done entirely without machinery. The European cork industry produces 340,000 tonnes of cork a year, with a value of €1.5 billion and employs 30,000 people.

The cork is used to make a wide range of products in addition to wine bottle stoppers, including insulation… Read more “More than just wine bottle stoppers”

Rubber … from the Spanish Court to pneumatic tyres

Rubber trees (Hevea bransiliensis) are tall deciduous trees growing to a height of up to 45 metres in the wild, but cultivated trees are usually much smaller because drawing off latex restricts growth. The inner bark oozes latex when damaged.

Native to the Amazon and Orinoco river basins of Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, rubber trees where originally called caoutchouc, from the indigenous cauchy, or ‘weeping wood’. The rubber tree is a member of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge) family. Its creamy latex is a suspension in water of about 50 per cent rubber ready to be excluded and quickly… Read more “Rubber … from the Spanish Court to pneumatic tyres”

© 2024 Talking Trees

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑