The wood anatomy of the South African acacias

Abstract

Wood specimens of 37 different Acacia species were used for this study. Of all the wood characters investigated, only nine were found to be useful for principal component analysis to differentiate between the different species. Of these the width and to a lesser extent, the height of the rays gave the best results. The rays in the wood of the subgenus Acacia are 1-3-seriate, while those of the subgenus Aculeiferum are multiseriate. A significant negative correlation was found between the latitude and ray height of A. karroa wood specimens collected in different parts of the country.