Abstract:

To obtain fast-growing Cunninghamia lanceolata (Chinese fir) clones and profile their wood quality that would be useful for further application of these superior clones in forestry, screening assay basing on the determination and analysis of the growth and wood quality traits of 38 19-year-old Cunninghamia lanceolata clones were conducted. It was found that the growth traits including height and diameter and volume varied extremely significantly among clones, and all the traits had a high repeatability level (>0.85). Of the tested clones, a total of 6 (C08, C17, C21, C23, C24 and C35) were supposed to be fast-growing ones. The bark ratios of these superior clones were all below 6.5%, and the shrinkage of the wood appeared to be lower than that of the value of population mean (PM). C08, C21 and C35 superior clones displayed a higher level of wood density of PM, while the wood hygroscopicity of clone C17, C23 and C24 seemed to be also higher than that of PM. Strikingly, the C17, C21 and C23 superior clones all presented a >49% heartwood ratio. Further analysis revealed that all the superior clones had a realized-gain of over 35% in volume. In the case of the wood, the realized-gain for each trait seemed to be different for each superior clone. Herein, it was concluded that the selection of fast-growing clones basing on the trait of volume was effective, and the obtained wood quality data would be useful for multi-evaluation of the superior clones and their further exploitation in near future.