Characterization of Wood Cellular Structures of Five Lesser Used Wood Species Growing in Nigeria

Abstract

The wood micro cellular structural constituents of five lesser used wood species in Nigeria among which are Butyrospermum paradoxum, Albizia zygia, Lanea acida, Parkia felicoida and Isoberlina doka are determined.  Fibre cells accounts for 54% of the total wood micro cellular constituents  of B. paradoxum while vessel, axial and ray parenchyma cells make up the rest of the wood micro structural constituents accounting for 11.3%, 11.98% and 22.27% respectively.  The number of fibres at 2452 per mm² coupled with the high proportion of fibre cells at 54% indicates that the density of the wood species may likely be high. In A. zygia the volume fraction of fibres, vessels, axial and ray parenchyma are 36.1%, 7.83%, 23.2% and 32.87% respectively.  The number of fibres per mm³ is also high at 3,782. The result of the study on L. acida is slightly difference from the others.  While the fibre constituent was 29.3%, the wood has no apparent axial parenchyma. The ray parenchyma cells make up 67% of the total wood micro constituents elements.    The number of vessels per mm³ is 10.01 while the number of fibre per mm³ is 2370.5.   In P. felicioda the percentage proportion of fibre cells is 39.1% while the volume fractions of vessels, axial and ray parenchyma cells are 4.60% 23.4% and 24.0% respectively.  The number of vessels per mm³ is 7.61 while that of fibre cells is 3288.6%. In I. doka , fibres proportion is 26.6%, while those of vessels, axial and ray parenchyma cells are 14.8%, 35% and 36% respectively.  The result indicated that B. paradoxum could be a good candidate for structural application while various degrees of preservative treatment may have to be applied to the other wood species to increase their life in service.

Keywords:  micro cellular, structural elements, point counts, breast height, ray and axial parenchyma, vessels