Wood density of western hemlock: effect of ring width
- 1 March 1994
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Canadian Science Publishing in Canadian Journal of Forest Research
- Vol. 24 (3) , 638-641
- https://doi.org/10.1139/x94-083
Abstract
Wood density of western hemlock (Tsugaheterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) was determined by X-ray densitometry of strips from breast-height samples consisting of rings 20–24 from the pith. Ring parameters were averaged over the 5 years for each strip. Wood density was negatively correlated with radial growth rate. Average wood density dropped from 0.47 to 0.37 g/cm3 as average ring width increased from 2 to 8 mm. Wood density decreased at higher growth rates primarily because earlywood width increased while latewood width remained the same; as a result, percentage of latewood decreased. Earlywood density decreased slightly at higher growth rates, but latewood density was not significantly related to growth rate.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: