A New Technique for the Demarcation Between Juvenile and Mature Wood in Cryptomeria Japonica

Abstract

Three average, healthy Cryptomeria trees were felled in fall 1990 from a 40-year-old plantation located in central Taiwan. The plantation was established with l- year-old cuttings at a 2 × 2 m spacing. A5 cm thick circular-shaped disk specimen was removed from each sample tree at breast height, then a 2 em wide wood strip cut along the south-north aspect of each disk specimen. The wood strip was separated further into individual growth increments in odd-numbered growth rings numbered 1 (near pith) to 33 (near bark) and forty latewood tracheids per growth ring were measured. Their mean lengths were used as items in an analysis of variance on each of eight sets of data.