Morphological characteristics of Pinus radiata, Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris / Mohd Madzuan Shafaraz Mahmud

The morphological characteristic of fiber can determine the properties and
behavior of wood species as a raw material in production line. The softwood
species from Pinus radiata, Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris has been widely
used in pallet and furniture industry. All of these three pine wood were
categorized under family of Pinaceae. However, there are lack of information
and research study regarding the morphological characteristic of the wood.
The main purposes of this study were to determine and compare the
morphological characteristics of Pinus radiata, Picea abies and Pinus
sylvestris. The wood sample was taken from CHEP (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. and
the fiber maceration was conducted using sodium chlorite method. The
experimental design was based on Randomized Block Design (RBD). The
findings of the study show a highly significant different on the fiber diameter
and lumen diameter while there is no significant evidence on the fiber length
and cell wall thickness on the three soft wood species. In terms of felting
power the Pinus sylvestris, Pinus radiata and Picea abies has good potential
to be used in paper production, tissue and packaging material. Although,
there are slightly concerned on the strength properties of Pinus sylvestris
since the runkel ratio and flexibility ratio is not pass the standard value.