The characteristic medullary rays in oak will absorb much less and remain mostly blonde.

In botany, Medullary rays refer to a characteristic found in woods.

The vessel elements are relatively small and usually 2-4-seriate; the medullary rays are fine and close together.

The bridge is a precisely cut piece of maple, preferably with prominent medullary rays, showing a flecked figure.

The wood is usually hard and tough, and provided with conspicuous medullary rays, forming the silver grain.

Oak (Quercus) species are typically dense, hard and show distinctive pores and medullary rays.

Timbers with medullary rays, such as oak, may be hard to split through these radial rays and so careful alignment is made to split between them.

Medullary rays grow in a radial fashion in the living tree, so while flat-sawing would cut across the rays, quarter-sawing puts them on the face of the board.

For instance, some timbers, notably oak, have a certain number of fibres, medullary rays, running radially in the trunk and thus crossing the longitudinal fibres at right angles.

In addition to the grain, quartersawn wood (particularly oak) will also often display a pattern of medullary rays, seen as subtle wavy ribbon-like patterns across the straight grain.

These waste products are produced by the cambium and transported to the centre of the stem by cellular structures called medullary rays radiating from the center of the stem.

They unite at short intervals with one another, the resulting tubes presenting a considerable increase in caliber, so that a series of comparatively large tubes passes from the bases of the medullary rays into the renal pyramids.

In quartersawn material, where the wood is cut into boards with the growth rings roughly perpendicular to the face of the board, the medullary rays often produce beautiful figure such as silver grain, medullary spots, pith flecks, etc.

The wood of Canella is very heavy and exceedingly hard, strong, and close-grained, with numerous thin, inconspicuous medullary rays; it is dark red-brown,and the thick sapwood consists of 25 to 30 layers of annual growth, light brown or yellow in color.