Seasonal variation in traumatic resin canal formation in Chamaecyparis obtusa phloem

Abstract

Trunks of Chamaecyparis obtusa were injured to examine seasonal differences in traumatic resin canal formation in secondary phloem. Even after wounding during winter, differentiation of axial parenchyma into epithelium was initiated, and vertical resin canals formed. After winter wounding, resin canal development was slower and the tangential extent of resin canals was narrower than after spring wounding, and it took one to two months until resin secretion began. After spring wounding, the sites of resin canal formation were the 1- and 2-year-old annual rings of phloem. In August, the location of resin canal formation shifted into the current and 1-year-old annual ring. Resin canals never formed in secondary phloem areas that were 3 or more years old. In C. obtusa trunks that are affected by the resinous stem canker, numerous tangential lines of resin canals are found throughout the phloem, not just recent and 1- to 2-year-old phloem. The present research indicates that these many lines of resin canals were not formed at one time, and that the stimuli that induce traumatic resin canals must occur repeatedly over many years. The data on artificial wounding effects are useful for understanding resinous stem canker.