Variation in specific gravity of wood of Quercus leucotrichophora A. Camus (Banoak) from different provenances in Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

The present study was conducted to determine the specific gravity of wood of Quercus leucotrichophora, procured from the live trees having diameter at breast height (d.b.h) ranged from 25cm to 30cm of different provenances in Himachal Pradesh. Specific gravity of wood is a measure of the amount of structural material a tree species allocates to provide support and strength. It is the most important wood characteristic because its knowledge allows the prediction of greater number of properties than any other trait. In recent years, wood specific gravity has become more important when exploring the universality of functional traits of plants and estimating their global carbon stocks.To estimate the specific gravity, banoak wood samples were collected from a total of 22 provenances in Himachal Pradesh, India. Variation in specific gravity was recorded both in sap wood and heart wood portion of studied banoak trees. The sapwood specific gravity was 7 per cent less than the heartwood specific gravity on average basis and was found to be maximum in Bahadurpur (0.765) whereas lowest was recorded in Jarri (0.629). Highest heartwood specific gravity was observed in Kalapul (0.796) and lowest in Jarri (0.734).