Abstract
The paper presents a comparison between intra-ramet, intra-clonal and inter-clonal variations in girth at breast height (gbh), fiber length, fiber diameter, wall thickness, vessel element length, vessel element diameter and specific gravity in the ramets of L34, G3 and S7C15 clones of Populus deltoides at the age of 6 years old produced from planting material grown by macro- and micro-propagation techniques. Variance ratio (F) test indicated that intra-ramet variations were non-significant for all the characters except specific gravity for height in L34 for macro and specific gravity and vessel element diameter for radial locations for micro, and fiber length for G3 (micro) for height, and specific gravity for radial location and fiber length for height for S7C15 clone for both the techniques. The clone L34 showed the significantly higher girth followed by G3 and S7C15. The variations were significant for girth, vessel element length and specific gravity between the wood produced from planting stocks grown by two techniques. Intra-clonal variations were significant for fiber length, fiber diameter and vessel element length. In general wood element’s dimensions and specific gravity increased from bottom to top and pith to periphery radial locations. G3 clone was different from the L34 and S7C15 clone for the wood traits. The three different clones of Populus deltoides showed variability in wood anatomical properties and specific gravity in the woods grown from macro- and micro-propagated planting stock. So, the plantation raised by two techniques could not produce similar type of wood even from the same clone. G3 clone was the exception as it did not show variation in wood traits for two techniques. Intra-clonal variations in all the three clones of P. deltoides indicated that wood traits were not stable within the population of same clone grown by either method.
Highlights
Populus deltoides is extensively used in plywood, match sticks, sports goods, wood-composites and paper industry
The paper presents a comparison between intra-ramet, intra-clonal and inter-clonal variations in girth at breast height, fiber length, fiber diameter, wall thickness, vessel element length, vessel element diameter and specific gravity in the ramets of L34, G3 and S7C15 clones of Populus deltoides at the age of 6 years old produced from planting material grown by macro- and micro-propagation techniques
Wood element’s dimensions and specific gravity of selected clones of Populus deltoides propagated by macroand micro-propagation techniques and the results of Multivariate analysis are given in Table 2 to 9
Summary
Populus deltoides is extensively used in plywood, match sticks, sports goods, wood-composites and paper industry It is grown under different forestry programs as clonal plantations to ensure the genetic superiority for better growth and superior wood quality. There are reports available on the variation in wood anatomical and other properties in different clones of Populus elsewhere [7,8,9,10] It showed that existing literature is only available on the screening of wood quality of poplar clones propagated by macro-propagation technique. The present paper deals with the intra-ramet, intraclonal and inter-clonal variations in wood anatomical parameters and specific gravity in plantation wood of three clones of P. deltoides viz., L34, G3. This efforts was made to compare the wood properties of the wood produced thereof and harvested at 6 years age
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