Wood Property Difference Between Two Stands of Sycamore and Black Willow

Wood properties of natural stands of willow and sycamore growing along the southern reaches of the Mississippi River were investigated. Properties of mature wood measured were specific gravity, fiber dimensions, and the proportional volume of xylem tissue composed of vessels, fibers and parenchyma.There are no statistically significant differences between measured properties of sycamore stands, and willow stands vary significantly only in fiber length and the proportion of vessels and ray tissue present.Correlation analysis revealed that there is no significant relationship between diameter growth rate and specific gravity for either species. Specific gravity is positively related to fiber wall thickness in willow, but there is little relationship among these properties in sycamore. The specific gravity of sycamore is, however, positively related to ray content. This relationship is important to tree breeders, because selection of high specific gravity phenotypes may result in an increase of ray tissue in select material