Wood specific gravity of important hardwood tree species of Jhalawar District

Abstract

The specific gravity (SG) of wood is a measure of the amount of structural material allocated to provide support and strength. In recent years, specific gravity of wood has become the field of ecologists for exploring the universality of plant functional traits and estimation of global carbon stocks and wood quality. The analyzed hardwood species differed greatly with respect to different wood quality parameters. The maximum specific gravity (0.66) was observed in Acacia nilotica followed by Acacia leucophloea (0.65), Dalbergia sissoo (0.62), Mangifera indica (0.58) and Tectona grandis (0.52) whereas lowest was found in Ailanthus excelsa wood with value of 0.44. No effect was seen in location due to locality factors. The main objective of the present study was to estimate the wood specific gravity of six hardwood dominant tree species from the Jhalawar District compared with Tectona grandis wood and thus study the potential of wood to be utilized for furniture making and different wood product industries.