BASIC DENSITY AND SCALING OF JUVENILE AND MATURE WOOD IN PINUS CARIBAEA TREES

Abstract

"The objective of the present study was to evaluate the density, and delimit the transition age and the volume proportion of wood types in Pinus caribaea trees. Trees from two genetic materials (A and B) were selected from a 20-year-old P. caribaea plantation. Disks from the base were used to determine the age of wood segregation and disks from different axial position – to determine the basic density and volume of juvenile, transition and mature wood in the trees. The density of the wood decreased from the base to the tree top. The juvenile wood corresponded to the beginning of the cambium activity until the eighth ring, the rest being characterized as transition wood and no mature wood was found in the 20-year-old P. caribaea trees. The proportion of juvenile wood volume in the genetic materials A and B was 58.57% and 80.51%. Transition wood was found up to 17.3 meters height of the trees."