The Biology of Reaction Wood Introduction

International audienceThe rings on the cross-section of the branch of a tree show the number of its years, and the greater or smaller width of these rings show which years were wetter and which drier. They also show the direction in which the branch was turned, for the part that was turned towards the north grows thicker than that turned towards the south so that the centre of the stem is nearer to the bark that faces south than to that on the north side. " Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo published his observations of stem asymmetry in his notes for a treatise on painting without any attempt at explanation. It must represent one of the earliest references to reaction wood in the literature, although there can be no doubt that carpenters and joiners had long been intuitively aware of its effects on the working and mechanical properties of timber. With the passage of time our understanding of why and how it is formed in the tree has increased, providing a scientific basis for folk knowledge, but despite extensive research, much remains to be explained. The last major work on this topic was the Magnum Opus of Timell (1986), which summarised current ideas on compression wood in gymnosperms. No equivalent work has, however, been produced dealing with tension wood, its counterpart in angiosperm dicotyledonous trees. This reflects to some extent the fact that hitherto, tension wood has been of less commercial importance, although this is now changing with the breeding and development of fast-growing temperate-hardwood species. This book is intended to bring the reader up-to-date with progress in research into reaction wood, particularly with reference to tension wood, but also the developments in compression wood research since the publication of Timell's definitive work