ECOLOGICAL AND FUNCTIONAL COMPARISON OF WOOD ANATOMY ON SOME TREE GENERA IN THE SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

This work aimed at utilizing wood anatomical traits to assess the compatibility or suitability of 9 species in the families where they belong since the earlier classification depended only on morphological characters and also to possibly deduce the permeability of their vessel lumen during wood treatment with preservatives of equal or different viscosity. Comparative stem anatomy of tree taxa Antiaris toxicaria Lesch. (Moraceae), Ficus exasperate Vahl. (Moraceae), Milicia excelsa Welw. (Moraceae), Dacryodes klaineana Lam. (Burseraceae) Canarium schweinfurthii Engl. (Burseraceae), Dacryodes edulis Lam. (Burseraceae), Erythrophleum suaveolens Taub. (Fabaceae), Pelthophorum pterocarpum De Cand. (Fabaceae), Pterocarpus soyauxii Taub. (Fabaceae) was studied. Observations on the transverse, radial-longitudinal and tangential-longitudinal sections showed that there were vast variations and few similarities in the vessel, axial parenchyma, ray cell and storied fibre distributions within and across families. Variations across the three ecological zones were found. The highest vessel diameter occurred in C. schwenfortii with 222.84µm (Burseraceae) followed by F. Exasperate with 196.42 µm (Moraceae) and P. pterocarpum with 187.23 µm (Fabaceae) across the three ecological zones. Vessel diameters were in direct proportion with the amount of rainfall while vessel frequencies were in negative proportion with the amount of rainfall across the ecological zones. Qualitative properties were not significantly affected by either temperature or rainfall.