alburnum

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   sapwood: the younger, usually paler outer wood of a tree trunk, between the cambium and heartwood

   Water rises through the alburnum before reaching the tree's leaves.

Borrowed in the seventeenth century from Latin alburnum, 'sapwood,' from albus, 'white.' The name refers to the younger outer wood's typically pale color in contrast with the darker, older heartwood toward the center of a trunk.

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