Variability of growth and quality of Framiré wood (Terminalia ivorensis); correlations between characters; evolution of width of age-rings and density components in function of age

Abstract

A hundred and fifteen Framirés (Terminalia ivorensis) in natural forests and in plantations (fourteen stations altogether) were investigated with the Pressler auger. X-rays of the samples led us, through a study of density curves, to assess the quality of the wood of this species and its growth in diameter. Reading the age-rings is particularly easy in the case of this tropical species.
While it acts on the width of age-rings, the geographical influence is practically non-operative on the quality of the wood. Locally, however, there is great variability between trees in a given station.
Inside a tree, the antinomy of quality (essentially high minimum density and low density contrast) and growth is manifest, but it seems possible to find Framirés with a high average width of age-rings without the minimum density being adversely affected.
Age has a considerable influence on the rate of growth and on quality (except where density contrast is concerned). Wood of a juvenile type seems to persist up to about fifteen years. But there are strong links between juvenile wood and adult wood from an early age (five years) in respect of density components other than density contrast, in respect of which the link appears only at the age of ten years. Where growth is concerned, on the other hand, no significant correlation appears.