Use of the pilodyn for assessing wood properties in standing trees of Eucalyptus clones

The effectiveness of pilodyn was tested in evaluating wood basic density, outer wood density, heartwood density, and modulus of elasticity (MoE) at 22 four-year-old eucalyptus clones in Guangxi, China. Results indicated that the mean value ranged from 9.44 to 15.41 mm for Pilodyn penetration, 0.3514 to 0.4913 g·cm-3 for wood basic density, and 3.94 to 7.53 Giga Pascal (GPa) for MoE, respectively. There were significant differences (1% level) in pilodyn penetration between different treatments, different directions and among the clones. Generally strongly negative correlations were found between pilodyn penetration and wood properties, and the coefficients ranged from -0.433 to -0.755. Our results, together with other studies, suggest that the use of pilodyn for assessing wood density and MoE was confirmed as a possibility. © Northeast Forestry University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.