Abstract:
There are many uncommon local timber species available in Sri Lanka with potential to use as
high quality timber which has high density (>500 kgm-3) with fine or moderate texture.
Therefore, it is important to identify these species and classify according to their timber
properties to popularize among consumers and people engaged in timber industry and forest
management. Determination of the relation between wood anatomical structures specially
vessel properties with related to wood physical properties such as texture and density are
important for the wood identification process. In this investigation, approximately same age 86
uncommon timber species were selected. (Eg: Masmoru, Walipanna, Gonna, Aridda, Dickwenna,
etc.) The samples were selected from the center part of the heartwood as 5 samples from each
plant in each species. Timber density was calculated by Archimedes method. To study the
anatomical features, slides were prepared with small wood sections and observed through the
microscope using anatomical photos and Micrometrics SE Premium 4 software. Texture was
determined using vessel diameter (vessel diameter (µm) 0 -100: fine texture, 100 – 200:
moderate texture, > 200 µm: coarse texture). There is a significant association between wood
texture and density. Further, a significant negative relationship was observed between wood
density and vessel diameter (r = -0.866, p<0.05), wood density and vessel perimeter (r = -0.610,
p<0.05) as well as wood density and vessel area (r = -0.546, p<0.05). The wood density and
vessel number had a very poor positive relationship (r = 0.458, p<0.05). There is no significant
relationship between wood density with vessel arrangement and shape. Vessel number showed
significant negative relationship with vessel diameter (r = -0.582, p<0.05). Wood texture can be
mainly categorized into coarse texture with rough surface and fine to moderate texture with
smooth surface of wood. The classification according to texture explains that most selected
uncommon species has fine to moderate texture when compare to coarse texture. Finally, these
fine & moderate texture species with high density can be suggested to popularize within the
fields of lumber industry, silviculture, forestry and also among consumers because those spp.
have high timber quality and thereby high economic value.
