Protective outer layer on the stems and roots of woody plants, composed mainly of dead cells. To allow for expansion of the stem, the bark is continually added to from within, and the outer surface often becomes cracked or is shed as scales. Trees deposit a variety of chemicals in their bark, including poisons. Many of these chemical substances have economic value because they can be used in the manufacture of drugs. Quinine, derived from the bark of the Cinchona tree, is used to fight malarial infections; curare, an anesthetic used in medicine, comes from the Strychnus toxifera tree in the Amazonian rainforest.
Bark technically includes all the tissues external to the vascular cambium (the phloem, cortex, and periderm), and its thickness may vary from 2.5 mm/0.1 in to 30 cm/12 in or more, as in the giant redwood Sequoia where it forms a thick, spongy layer.
The bark from the cork oak Quercus suber is economically important and harvested commercially. The spice cinnamon and the drug cascara (used as a laxative and stimulant) come from bark. + prikaži više

(Homonym: peal).
1. The rind of a fruit.
2. A thin layer of organic material that is embedded in a film of collodion and stripped from the surface of an object (as a plant fossil) for microscopic study.
3. Chemical peel.
4. A usually long-handled spade-shaped instrument that is used chiefly by bakers for getting something (as bread or pies) into or out of the oven.
5. Medieval small massive fortified tower along the Scottish-English border — called also peel tower. + prikaži više

A peeled-off piece or strip

ETYM AS. rind bark, crust of bread; akin to Old High Germ. rinta, German rinde, and probably to Eng. rand, rim; cf. Skr. ram to end, rest.
A hard outer covering or skin on food.