Development of wood decay in wound-initiated discolored wood of eastern red cedar
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Walter C. Shortle
Abstract
Logs of eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana L., with well-developed bands of light-colored wood (“included sapwood”) within heartwood can be unsuitable for sawn wood products. This finding is in contrast to published information that the “included sapwood” is (1) a heartwood anomaly rather than sapwood and (2) its occurrence is not a reason to exclude this type of wood from commercial use. The alternative view presented here is that “included sapwood” is wound-initiated discolored wood which is the starting point for wood decay in living trees and which has adversely altered wood properties before the development of decay symptoms. Our study of the patterns of discoloration and decay, electrical resistance properties, elemental analysis, wood acidity, solubility in dilute NaOH, total phenol content, and tests of wood decay resistance indicated that the so-called included sapwood was discolored wood. This light-colored discolored wood had no greater decay resistance than sapwood, a common finding in other tree species in which “included sapwood” is found. Half the sample disks sent to our laboratory had symptomatic decay within the bands of light-colored discolored wood bounded by a phenol-enriched protective layer on the bark side and phenol-enriched heartwood on the pith side of the band. This ring-rot, even in its pre-symptomatic stage, can cause problems during processing for sawn wood products. Therefore, logs with well-developed bands of light-colored discolored wood should be considered high-risk material for some products, although they could be useful for others.
©2010 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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- The effects of subthreshold loadings of tebuconazole, DDAC, and boric acid on wood decay by Postia placenta
- Short Notes
- New aspects of residual lignin isolation
- Personalia
- Horst H. Nimz celebrated his 80th birthday on April 21st, 2010
- Meetings
- Meetings
Articles in the same Issue
- Original Papers
- Pre-extraction of hemicelluloses and subsequent ASA and ASAM pulping: Comparison of autohydrolysis and alkaline extraction
- Effect of drying and rewetting of wood on cellulose molecular packing
- Determination of native (wood derived) formaldehyde by the desiccator method in particleboards generated during panel production
- A computational study of pyrolysis reactions of lignin model compounds
- Energy reduction of refining by cellulases
- Macro- and micro-mechanical properties of red oak wood (Quercus rubra L.) treated with hemicellulases
- Acoustic emission measurements and lattice simulations of microfracture events in spruce
- Impact of organosilicon treatments on the wood-water relationship of solid wood
- Analysis of the water vapour sorption behaviour of Sitka spruce [Picea sitchensis (Bongard) Carr.] based on the parallel exponential kinetics model
- Effects of modification with glutaraldehyde on the mechanical properties of wood
- Effect of glutaraldehyde on water related properties of solid wood
- Creep behavior of bamboo under various desorption conditions
- Predicting the longitudinal modulus of elasticity of Sitka spruce from cellulose orientation and abundance
- Examination of the mode I critical stress intensity factor of wood obtained by single-edge-notched bending test
- Potential Brazilian wood species for bows of string instruments
- Non-destructive assessment of green density and moisture condition in plantation-grown radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don.) by increment core measurements
- Development of wood decay in wound-initiated discolored wood of eastern red cedar
- The effects of subthreshold loadings of tebuconazole, DDAC, and boric acid on wood decay by Postia placenta
- Short Notes
- New aspects of residual lignin isolation
- Personalia
- Horst H. Nimz celebrated his 80th birthday on April 21st, 2010
- Meetings
- Meetings
