The term hardwood designates wood from broad-leaved (mostly deciduous, but not necessarily, in the case of tropical trees) or angiosperm trees. Hardwood contrasts with softwood, which comes from conifer trees. On average, hardwood is of higher density and hardness than softwood, but there's considerable variation in actual wood hardness in both groups, with a large amount of overlap; some hardwoods (for example balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while yew is an example of a hard softwood. H… (More on Hardwood)