Abstract

Wood specific gravity and fibre length are known to be the best two indicators of pulpwood qualitywhile the former gives an indication of pulp yield the latter determines the tearing strength of the paper. To determine a basis for sampling phenotypically superior trees. Circumferential variation in these wood properties was investigated in two eucalypt species. viz. Eucaplyptus grandis and E. teriticornis. Both specific gravity and fibre length increased consistently from pith to bark regions although radial patterns of variation differed slightly between the species. The results also showed that there were no significant differences among the four radii at right angles to each other at breast height level. Thus sampling from any one radial direction will be sufficient to represent the average values of these two pulpwood quality indicators of superior trees