Here is a slice of petrified palmwood I found last weekend. I noted upon a close examination that the vascular bundles (the dots seen all over the surface) appear to have been distorted from a round shape to more of a half-moon shape, with the distorted side facing roughly 4 o'clock in most instances. I asked a friend of mine about this since his speciality is petrified wood, and was told such a thing was relatively common due to compression of the wood prior to fossilization.
Does that sound right? Any paleo-botanists out there that can confirm what I've been told?