Heartwood in relation to age and growth rate in Pinus sylvestris L. in Scandinavia

Abstract

Knowledge about the transformation of sapwood into heartwood contributes to the understanding of the nature of pine trees and should be considered prior to the conversion of sawlogs to produce timber of prescribed properties and optimal revenue. In this study, heartwood formation was ascribed to the joint effect of ageing and growth rate. Observations of heart- and sapwood in 1656 trees and sawlogs of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), sampled throughout Scandinavia, were analysed using mixed models. The most important finding was expressed in the pine heartwood age rule: heartwood age equals the square root of cambial age less three, to the second power. This global formula was valid irrespective of environmental factors and location within the tree, and described 93 per cent of the variance in the sample. Transition rate increases from 0.6 rings a-1 at 50 years to 0.8 rings a-1 at 200 years. The spatial amount of heartwood might be influenced by the silviculture through the annual ring width pattern. For samples missing sapwood, e.g. archaeological wood, the results might be combined with dendrochronology in specimen dating. When the diameter and the heartwood diameter of sawlogs were known, the mean annual ring width could be estimated with a standard deviation of 0.5 mm a-1. The simplicity, consistency and high correlation of the pine heartwood age rule confirms the importance of age as the main factor in heartwood formation.