Bark (botany) rope, used for example in the rigging of Viking age longships. Among the commercial products made from bark are cork, cinnamon, quinine (from the bark of Cinchona) and aspirin (from the bark of willow trees). The bark of some trees notably oak ("Quercus robur") is a source of tannic acid, which is used in tanning. Bark chips generated as a by-product of lumber production are often used in bark mulch in western North America. Bark is important to the horticultural industry since in shredded form it is used for plants that do not thrive in ordinary soil, such as epiphytes.
Bark beater Bark beater In many traditional cultures, bark beaters were tools used to pound tree bark, to make the bark softer for the processing of barkcloth, which is used for making paper, and clothing. This tool has many different variations that are seen in indigenous cultures worldwide, yet all for a similar purpose. “In Mesoamerica, the earliest proven bark beaters are from the Maya area and its periphery, particularly the Pacific coastal plain of Guatemala and El Salvador, where they appear some 2,500 years ago.” Both forms of bark beaters (club-shaped, and racquet type) were also found in the islands of