Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Within-tree variability in wood quality parameters for mature longleaf pine

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Mature longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) trees were harvested from a spacing, thinning, and pruning study on the Palustris Experimental Forest, LA, to assess wood quality parameters of earlywood specific gravity (SG), latewood SG, ring SG, and latewood percent using X-ray densitometry. For each of ten 70-year-old trees used in the study, 2-inch thick disks were cut every 2 feet from the stump cut at 0.5 feet. A strip of wood was cut from bark to bark, and through the pith, to afford “cores” from bark to pith for the northern and southern cardinal directions. This sampling scheme provided the opportunity to compare wood properties determined at breast height to whole-tree area-weighted values. Only a few effects of silvicultural treatment were significant. As expected for spacing, an increase in ring width appeared to accompany wider planting densities. Significant differences were observed in whole-tree values as compared with those at breast height alone, in particular with north-south differences related to ring and latewood SG.

Parent Publication

Keywords

longleaf pine, Pinus palustris, wood quality

Citation

So, Chi-Leung; Eberhardt, Thomas L.; Leduc, Daniel J. 2018. Within-tree variability in wood quality parameters for mature longleaf pine. In: Kirschman, Julia E., comp. Proceedings of the 19th biennial southern silvicultural research conference; 2017 March 14-16; Blacksburg, VA. e-General Technical Report SRS-234. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/57060