The wood formation of kapur (Dryobalanops sumatrensis) and tembaga (Shorea leprosula), growing under a weak seasonal climate in West Malaysia was studied over a four-year period using cambium marking. Technical problems arose from the heavy callus formation due to the wounding of the cambium, the small radial increment, and the high variability of the cambial activity around and along the stem. Wood formation in the two tree species appears to be a continuous process and not related to seasonality in rainfall and phenology.

No abstract

The periodicity of leaf change and flowering and fruiting of tropical trees is discussed. Cambial activity patterns in tropical trees are reviewed. Emphasis is put on research undertaken in South-East Asia on the most important timber tree family in that region, the Dipterocarpaceae. There is an urgent need for more information on the effects of rainfall patterns and phenological periodicity on cambial activity and ring formation in this family

Branches of 8-year-old trees of Acacia mangium Willd. from a plantation in Malaysia were wounded. After response periods from 1 to 4 weeks wound-adjacent xylem was investigated by electron microscopy. Wounding induced the synthesis of dark-stained material in parenchyma cells with subsequent secretion through the pits into vessels and fibres. After four weeks many of them contained wall-attached layers of this material. Entirely filled vessels and fibres were not observed. As a second wound-associated process suberization of parenchyma cells contributes to the separation of wound-adjacent xylem tissue. Fungal degradation frequently occurred around the wound already three weeks after wounding. The effectivity of early wound responses in A. mangium appears low

Plantations of agricultural and industrial crops, such as rubber, coconut, bamboo, and oil palm, are providing important new “wood” sources for forest industries in Asia. Several of these new woods are becoming mainstream species in the manufacture of traditional forest products and in the production of innovative product lines in Asia. The estimated 27.4 million hectares of these crops in the region constitute an enormous resource that is still largely untapped. Technological improvements are permitting the use of previously wasted materials into plywood, particleboard, paper, and even lumber and furniture. The acceleration in rubberwood processing during the past decade is indicative of the potential importance that other crops may soon assume in Asian markets.