Wood Specific Gravity Variability in Ceiba Pentandra

We examined the wood specific gravity variability in Ceiba pentandra trees from four Costa Rican life-zones and a moist tropical forest in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Trees from the African site averaged higher wood specific gravity than those occurring at two high-rainfall sites in Costa Rica. However, the high degree of variability within sites reduced our capacity to detect environmental and/or genetic differences among the sites. Higher intensity field samples, and/or provenance testing under specific environmental conditions, are recommended to help clarify the sources of this variation