In Akita prefecture, cherry bark is used for traditional industrial purposes (so-called kabazaiku). It is basically necessary to evaluate the bark of the tree for breeding and silviculture.
In the present study, we established a bark evaluation method that can be used with ease. From the observation of 3 mountains with cherry tree growth, it was seen that the cherry trees located on the ridge side were shorter and had smaller diameters and thiner bark compared to those on the valley side.
Using principal components analysis, the bark from 8 locations of 3 mountains could be classfied into 4 types. Moreover, the cherry tree height, bark thickness, and healthiness are correlated to the diameter of the tree. The height and the bark thickness can be estimaed by a single regression formula, using the tree diameter as the explanatory variable, but the bark healthiness cannot allow such estimation.
It was suggested that the cherry bark thickness and the healthiness are genetically and environmentally regulated.