Abstract
Little is known of the tree and stand dynamics of varied species of planted Paulownia left unmanaged until harvest in the southeastern United States. We sought to remedy this lack of information needed by land managers to make informed decisions by investigating differences in survivorship, attained diameter breast height (DBH), diameter at ground level, total height, tree volume and stand-level volume yields of planted P. elongata, P. fortunei, and P. tomentosa in the cool-moist environment of the southern Appalachian Mountains. After 9 years, combined-species survivorship was only 27.3%. Low survivorship was likely related to several inclement weather events. P. fortunei was significantly smaller in DBH and total height. Three combined-species stem (bole) volume models were developed as functions of (1) DBH squared, (2) the product DBH squared and total height, and (3) the product diameter ground line squared and total height. Mean total volume production of unmanaged stands was greatest for P. elongata and P. fortunei 4 years after planting; by the 9th year, total volume of P. elongata was greater than the other two species. Results of our study provide managers information on productivity of three species of Paulownia that can be used for estimating plantation yields.
Highlights
The genus Paulownia consists of nine species of deciduous trees that are endemic to temperate climates of eastern China and Taiwan, where it has long been cultivated for timber and fuel in forest and agroforestry plantings (Zhu et al 1986)
We examined the distribution of stem volume at 4 and 9 years by calculating the proportion of the total volume present in the butt section (BUTT) versus the top section (TOP)
We summarized the proportions of tree volume found within BUTT versus TOP sections by species for all plots
Summary
The genus Paulownia consists of nine species of deciduous trees that are endemic to temperate climates of eastern China and Taiwan, where it has long been cultivated for timber and fuel in forest and agroforestry plantings (Zhu et al 1986). Favorable wood properties and silvical characteristics of some species make Paulownia desirable for many commercial forest products including timber, pulpwood, biomass and biochemicals (Yadav et al 2013). Much is known about the cultivation of Paulownia in its native China (Zhu et al 1986) and globally (Yadav et al 2013), in arid environments where native species are less productive (Sun and Dickinson 1997) and on infertile soils of reclaimed mined land (Tang et al 1980). Because Paulownia can grow rapidly to commercial size and growth is substantially enhanced by management activities such as coppicing and fertilization (Beckjord and McIntosh 1983), irrigation (Beckjord 1991), agrocropping (Puxeddu et al 2012), and pruning (Wu et al 2014), its cultivation is
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