Pine heartwood formation as a maturation phenomenon

Abstract

The inverse of the relative increment rate of size is proposed as a measure of the maturity of a forest tree. The heartwood content within bole cross sections is modeled semiempirically using asymptotic fitting. It is shown that the present proposal for a definition of maturity statistically explains heartwood content far better than age or size. The heartwood content appears to be independent on growth rate and tree size.