Characterizations of Amazonian Woods in Relation to the Evolution of Woody Plants

亚马逊河流域是地球上生物资源的宝藏之一，因为最有价值的植物物种自然生长在亚马逊河流域。然而，根据可靠的数据，由于刀耕火种和过度放牧，亚马逊河流域每年仍有17,000平方公里的森林面积消失。选择和培育适应环境能力强的有用树种，不仅是热带雨林恢复的重要课题，也是木材利用的重要课题。创造新的木材价值将导致适当砍伐森林和植树造林的可持续木材管理。本文从环境适应性和遗传分类学的角度，对影响木材质量的关键因素--细胞壁的理化性质进行了研究。我们专注于木本植物的木质部形态建成位于巴西西北地区的马托格罗索州。亚马逊森林的比密度为0.5 ~ 1.18，比日本森林的密度高。Angelim-Vermelho和Castanha-do-Paral的甲醇提取物显示出显著高的百分比。木质素中的丁香基/愈创木基比率范围为0.6至1.77。

Amazonia is one of the treasures for bioresources on the earth, since the most valuable species of plants grew naturally in the Amazon river basin. However, according to a reliable data, 17,000km 2 of the Amazonian forest area continues to be lost every year by slash-and-burn agriculture and over-pasturage. Selection and breedings of useful woods which have high abilities of environmental adaptation are very important subjects for not only restoration of the lost tropical rain forest but also for utilization of woods. Creation of new value of woods would lead to a sustainable wood management of appropriate deforest and afforestation. Although plant taxonomy on Amazonian woods has been well studied, there are few comprehensive researches about xylem morphogenesis and evaluation of wood quality that are essential for wood utilization.Our purpose of this work is to investigate physicochemical properties of the cell wall, which is a critical factor affecting the wood quality, in terms of environmental adaptation and genetic taxonomy. We focus on xylem morphogenesis of woody plants ranging over Mato Grosso located in the northwest region of Brazil. The specific densities of Amazonian woods were 0.5〜1.18, which are relatively higher than that of Japanese species. The MeOH-extractives of Angelim-Vermelho and Castanha-do-Paral showed significantly high percentages. Syringyl/Guaiacyl ratios in lignin ranged from 0.6 to 1.77.