VARIABILITY OF OAK WOOD (QUERCUS-ROBUR L., QUERCUS-PETRAEA LIEBL.) ANATOMY RELATING TO CASK PROPERTIES

This paper examines the variability of some structural characteristics (ring width, earlywood width, texture, large vessel tyloses, multiser iate rays, total porosity) of oak wood which may affect casks properti es. Sixty-six stave wood samples were taken from eleven trees of sessi le or pedunculate oaks from four French forests. For all the structura l wood characteristics measured, a high variability among the samples was observed. Significant correlations were observed between ring widt h (''grain'') and the other structural characteristics. However, excep t for the strong correlation with earlywood width, there remains a hig h level of residual variability. The influence of forest origin was co mparatively lower than the species effect while differences among tree s remained the principal source of oak wood structure variation for th e same ring width.