Juvenile Versus Mature Wood: A New Concept, Orthogonal to Corewood Versus Outerwood, with Special Reference to Pinus radiata and P. taeda

By R. Burdon, R. Kibblewhite, John C. F. Walker, R. Megraw, R. Evans, D. Cown. Forestry sciences, 2004

238 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Wood properties vary within stems of trees according to genera, species, and individuals. Such variation is largely systematic and is very pronounced in many pines, notably Pinus radiata and P. taeda. While gradual transitions predominate, there are practical needs for categorizing wood, in cutting stems to log lengths, followed by sorting and segregation for processing. Even radial segregation of wood is often possible. In such pines, there are strong, widely recognized progressions, in various wood properties, from pith to bark. Based largely on variation in density, the first few rings from the pith are widely termed juvenile wood, which intergrades outward into wood termed mature wood. Alternative terminology used for this radial progression has been from corewood into outerwood. Critical examination shows the juvenile versus mature wood terminology to be inadequate, on two counts: (1) various other wood properties, some of which can be important, show substantial axial variation at equal ring number from the pith; (2) this categorization based solely on radial variation does not fit the well-established botanical concept of maturation. However, this axial variation closely parallels the vertical variation in shoot morphology and the onset of reproduction that reflect maturation. This argues for a two-dimensional characterization of wood properties: juvenility versus maturity for the progression up the stem, and corewood versus outerwood for the radial progression from the pith to bark. FOR. SCI. 50(4):399–415.

Subfields: Insect Science, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Organic Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f2d5c4e9caff4f49e3e968b51b095aa9d2cb84dd

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Insect Science

1. P. West
2. John R Moore
3. B. Lachenbruch
4. R. Evans

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. Richard F. Daniels
2. A. Clark
3. P. West
4. L. Schimleck
5. L. Apiolaza
6. R. Evans
7. John R Moore
8. B. Lachenbruch

In Organic Chemistry

1. L. Apiolaza
2. Satoru Tsuchikawa

Citations in the corpus

• Regional variation in wood specific gravity of planted loblolly pine in the United States (2008, methodology): “Often, the difference between juvenile and mature wood has been determined by setting a threshold value for a specific wood property (Burdon et al. 2004); for SG, values ranging from 0.40 to 0.50 have been selected (Cown and Ball 2001; Clark and Saucier 1989; Clark et al. 2006).”
• Very early selection for solid wood quality: screening for early winners (2009, background): “In addition there are agerelated trends for these traits (Burdon et al., 2004), which in turn may affect optimal selection age.”
• Growing Plantation Forests (2010, background): “Both the age of the cambium and the stage of maturity of the tree affect the development of wood across the stem crosssection and with height up the stem (Burdon et al. 2004; Mora et al. 2007; Ikonen et al. 2008; Guller et al. 2012).”
• Acoustic measurements on standing trees, logs and green lumber (2006, background): “Burdon et al. (2004) consider both radial (corewood to outerwood) and axial (juvenile to mature) wood quality gradients.”
• Radial Variation in Wood Structure and Function in Woody Plants, and Hypotheses for Its Occurrence (2011, methodology): “Printing paper produced by the thermo-mechanical process from young radiata pine (Pinus radiata) has high structural uniformity, optical performance and surface smoothness (Burdon et al. 2004).”