Summary
The variation of six wood properties was studied within and between six trees ofPinus kesiya Royle ex Gordon (syn.P. khasya Royle;P. insularis Endlicher) grown in Zambia from seed of Assam provenance and exhibiting 24 annual rings at 5 ft. above ground. There were no important variations in latewood width (mean 0.8 mm) or grain angle (-1.7°). Total ring width (5.2 mm), latewood percentage (19.5%), tracheid length (4.8 mm) and density (0.50 g/cm3) exhibited systematic patterns of variation within trees that could be related to ring number and height by quadratic polynomials, which explained 70 to 90% of the variation. The most important source of random variation was the difference between individual trees and it is recommended that for plantation surveys many trees should be sampled by 3 to 4 annual rings on two radii at breast height.
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The wood samples were kindly supplied by the Zambia Forest Research Division. Laboratory work was undertaken at the Tree Improvement Research Centre, Agricultural Research Council of Zambia, P. O. Box 1210, Kitwe, Zambia. The authors wish to acknowledge the laboratory assistance of MissP. Waters, Mrs.G. A. R. Howell and Mr.J. F. Morgan. Data was processed on the IBM 360 computer of the Anglo-American Corporation, Kitwe, and on the KDF 9 computer of the Oxford University Computing Laboratory.
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Burley, J., Andrew, I.A. Variation in wood properties ofPinus kesiya Royle ex Gordon (syn.P. khasya Royle;P. insularis Endlicher); Six trees of Assam provenance grown in Zambia. Wood Sci.Technol. 4, 195–212 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00571854
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00571854