Variation in Wood Fiber Characteristics Among Hardwood Species Growing in Low-Rainfall Woodland Savanna (Sudan)

Abstract

This study investigated the extent of variation in wood fiber characteristics among hardwood species growing in low-rainfall woodland savanna in Sudan, shapes of fiber tips and the presence of septate fibers. The investigated fiber characteristics were: length, diameter, lumen diameter, double wall thickness, slenderness ratio, Runkle ratio and the coefficient of suppleness. The wood material was collected from thirty two species distributed in both Southern Kordofan state and Sennar state. Three mature trees were used per species; two samples per tree. The maceration procedure of Shultze was used to macerate the wood. The results showed highly significant variation among species in all the investigated characteristics, significant variation among trees within species in double wall thickness, Runkle ratio and coefficient of suppleness, while Variation between samples within tree was significant in all the investigated characteristics with one exception in runkle ratio. Seven shapes of fibers tips had been observed in this study. Thirteen species had septate fibers; some of them had exclusively septate fibers and the other had both septate and non-septate fibers. The remaining nineteen species have exclusively non-septate fibers.