Earlywood vessel features in Quercus faginea: relationship between ring width and wood density at two sites in Portugal

摘要

Wood anatomy holds relevant information for tree development and timberquality (e.g., wood density), which is important for the sustainability of thespecies. Quercus faginea Lam. (Portuguese or Lusitanian oak) is an autochthonousMediterranean oak species characterized by a shrinking natural distributionarea and use abandonment. We studied the variation of several woodproperties and their relationships with the aim of determining and possibly increasingthe wood economic value of this species. The anatomical features ofearlywood vessels (area, number, frequency and proportion) were investigatedin twenty Q. faginea trees sampled at two locations within the natural distributionof the species in Portugal. Moreover, we analyzed the variation of vesselfeatures from pith to bark, the radial growth and the wood density tosearch for patterns and relationships among the analyzed parameters. Meanearlywood vessel area increased with cambial age up to 60-70 years and thenleveled off. An inverse pattern was found for the number of vessels per ringbeyond that age. Similar radial patterns of all vessel features were found atboth sites, and no significant differences in earlywood vessel area were foundbetween sites. The within-tree development of earlywood vessels was age-related,though not influenced by growth. Earlywood vessel features explainedthe variation of wood density, i.e., wood density of Q. faginea was stronglynegatively correlated with both mean vessel area and proportion