VARIABILITY IN WOOD PROPERTIES OF 6-YEAR-OLD PLANTED MERANTI TREES (SHOREA-LEPROSULA, SHOREA-PARIVFOLIA AND SHOREA-PAUCIFLORA, DIPTEROCARPACEAE)

Radial and longitudinal variation in fibre wall percentage, area perce ntage of vessels and resin canals and specific gravity was studied in five superior six-year-old plantation grown trees of red meranti (Shor ea leprosula S. parvifolia and S. pauciflora). In another 23 trees of these species specific gravity was measured at breast height. Variatio n within the trees appeared small and did not show consistent patterns for any of the three parameters. The variance between trees of a spec ies, however, is significantly larger than the variance within the tre es and that among the species. For all three parameters, the Values fo und in the six-year-old trees correspond closely to those found in pre viously studied full-grown trees, which suggests that these superior s ix-year-old trees will not produce wood significantly better or worse than is the case for the full grown trees. Specific gravity in the pla nted trees is not significantly correlated to the two recorded growth rate parameters, height and diameter. The limited data on micro-enviro nmental conditions at the time of planting, however, show that Light a nd humidity may influence specific gravity, at least in the first year s of growth. The suggestion that trees from cuttings perform somewhat better than transplanted wildlings because they show relatively high v alues for specific gravity, can only be confirmed when the influence o f micro-environmental conditions and the diameter increment of these t rees is known.