Fiber dimension and anatomy of Acacia mangium wood from two mother trees

Mangium (Acacia mangium) has been opted as one of potential species for the establishment of industrial timber estate in Indonesia, particularly to support the production of pulp and paper. In order to obtain mangium stands that produces high quality wood, one attempt can be carried out through the selection and development of potential mother trees from the selected provenances. This study aim to obtain information on fiber dimension and the anatomy of mangium wood from two different mother trees from Papua New Guinea provenance. The wood was collected from mangium estate in Wonogiri forest research which was established in 2012 and managed by the Center Forest Biotechnology and Tree Improvement. Maceration process followed Forest Product Laboratory guidance and the preparat preparation followed Sass method. The wood anatomical terminology referred to IAWA (International Association of Wood Anatomists) list of microscopic features for hardwood identification was used to scrutinize the samples. The results showed that the average fiber dimension of mangium from the mother tree group 1 was 1239 micron (length), 25.96 micron (fiber diameter), and 3.67 micron (cell wall thickness). Those from the mother tree group 2 posseses the dimension as follow: 1215 micron (length), 25.42 micron (fiber diameter), and 3.73 micron (cell wall thickness). The fiber quality of mangium fiber from both mother tree groups could be considered in the quality class II. The anatomical structure of mangium from both mother tree groups include vessels cells in radial multiples radial multiple of 2-3 or 4 cells; vestured intervessel pits; parenchyma vascicentric and aliform; all ray cells procumbent and prismatic crystals in chambered axial parenchyma cells.