Evaluation of Selected Physical Properties of Blighia sapida K. Koenig Wood

Abstract

Blighia sapida, a Lesser-Used Species is being processed into sawn timber to meet the demand for wood. The knowledge of its wood quality would enhance its effective utilization. However, there is little information known on the physical properties of this species that could enhance its acceptability and optimum utilization. This, therefore, necessitate the need to investigate the physical properties of this wood species.
 Three standing trees of B. sapida were purposively felled for this study. Billets of 500 mm were obtained from the wood disc at the base, middle, and top of the tree. Each wood disc was partitioned into three; innerwood, middlewood, and outerwood following specified international standards for the physical properties test (wood colour, proportion of sapwood and heartwood, bark thickness, density, moisture content, and volumetric shrinkage).
 B. sapida wood density with a mean value of 709.78±8.88 kg/m3, ranged from (571.59±13.45 to 854.81±7.08 kg/m3. Moisture content percentage of average value 70.62±1.23%, ranged from 53.84±1.40 to 89.00±2.75%. Volumetric shrinkage of average value 15.24±0.25%, range from 13.38±0.66 to 16.89±0.83%. The range of B. sapida wood density value of the study falls within the range that could be categorized as medium density wood of medium construction strength properties. The 1:1.5% tangential–radial shrinkage observed in this study was low, an indicator of a low risk of deformation while seasoning the wood, as the ratios of tangential-radial shrinkage that is high are those over 2.2%.