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The wood rays are strips of short horizontal cells that extend in a radial direction and serve to store food and distribute it horizontally. They are also responsible for the transfers of water, nutrients, and chemicals occuring up and down in a tree. The sap, containing water and nutrients, is transported horizontally to the cambium through structures called wood rays. The wood rays are more complex structures in hardwoods while, in softwoods usually uniseriate and fusiform rays are observed. The fusiform rays are complex structure, usually present in the resin yielding trees i.e. Conifers. The imperative taxonomic characteristic in conifers is resin ducts, which are enclosed in fusiform rays in tangential section of the wood specimen. Comparative studies on fusiform rays predicted variation in number as well as structure of fusiform rays in the studied coniferous species.
Keywords: Fusiform rays, Conifers, Himachal Pradesh.