Wood Characteristics Related to “Injectability” of Trees

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Figure 1.
Transverse sections of outermost wood of 4 tree species, all 9.2×. A) Cockspur hawthorn stem, characterized by great numbers of small vessels. B,C) Black cherry stem and root, respectively, showing apparent greater porosity of stem wood. D, E) White oak stem and root, respectively, showing small numbers of large vessels and greater porosity of root wood than stem wood. F) Black locust root showing naturally occluded vessels in wood 1-2 years old.

Table 1.

Acceptance of injected water by stems and roots of 14 tree species in autumn and summer as related to wood porosity.

Tree species	Trunk diameter range (cm)^a	injection rate ± SO^b		Injection rate in roots ÷ rate in stems		Wood porosity index^c
Tree species	Trunk diameter range (cm)^a	Autumn	Summer	Autumn	Summer	Wood porosity index^c
Basswood
Tilia americana	35-70	I64±77	188±97	0.8	0.9	14.0
Cockspur hawthorn
Crataegus crus-galli	20-50	200±69	107±84	0.8	0.4	12.0^d
Black cherry
Prunus serotina	25-70	227±78	43±17	0.7	0.6	10.6
American Elm
Ulmus americana	16-25	108±48	87±45	1.1	0.9	10.8
American beech
Fagus grandifolia	26-55	107±30	86±29	0.9	0.6	7.1
Red oak
Quercus rubra	40-90	116±56	45±43	1.6	0.4	2.6
Black birch
Betula lenta	15-42	88±59	63±13	1.2	1.2	5.4
White oak
Quercus alba	40-50	91 ±45	22±17	1.6	1.4	5.0
Sugar maple
Acer saccharum	45-60	32±13	31 ± 7	0.8	0.9	5.4
Black locust
Robinia pseudoacacia	25-38	27±24	1 ±0.1	1.2	e	3.0
White ash
Fraxinus americana	20-40	8± 7	3± 1	e	e	1.9
Butternut
Juglans cinerea	21-38	4^e	4±3	e	e	2.0
Shagbark hickory
Carya ovata	21-28	3θ	0	e	e	1.6
Eastern white pine
Pinus strobus	26-60	0	1±0.1	e	e	f

↵a Diameter 1.4 m above soil line.
↵b ml/min/injection hole at 0.7 kg/cm²; avg. of stem plus root injections; 5 trees per species; ± standard deviation.
↵c lndex ≈ specific gravity of green wood^-1 X relative frequency of pores in cross section; data from Panshin et al. (1964), whose frequency terms were converted to numbers where “very few” = 1 and “very numerous” = 6.
↵d Data for index provided by authors.
↵e Data too few or volumes too small to justify calculation.
↵f Index can not be calculated for gymnosperm woods.