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Strategies for the production of high value timbers (Wertholz)
Project
Project code: TI-HF-08-HF-2021-2428, 2221NR009C
Contract period: 01.06.2021
- 31.05.2024
Purpose of research: Experimental development
The aim of the joint project is to increase the value-added potential of European commercial tree species. To this end, methods are to be developed that contribute to the conservation, propagation and utilization of trees with special wood structures. Well known examples of woods with a value enhancing structural pattern are the particularly aesthetic fiddleback maple, the bird's eye maple and the figured or curly birch. A total of six project partners from the fields of genetics, plant cultivation and propagation (based on in vitro cultures), and wood research are cooperating in an interdisciplinary manner in the “Wertholz joint project”. In particular, the project aims to clarify the questions of how the special structures arise, whether and how they are inherited, and how the trees can be used in an economically efficient manner. An existing “fiddleback” maple collection will be expanded into a “high value” wood collection by collecting corresponding wood genotypes which in turn come from donor trees whose logs have been sold to high prices at timber auctions. From these, crown scions or, ideally, root suckers or stump sprouts will be used to establish tissue cultures. The established clones represent a long-term preservable archive of genetic material that can be used to optimize the development of commercially applicable micropropagation protocols and generate significant numbers of clonal plants for use in forestry. The plant material produced will be marketed as high-value propagation material. Since the utilization of such wood is not expected for several decades, it is very difficult today to predict which timbers and grain patterns will be in particular demand in the future. Therefore, this project will not only concentrate on sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), which is very interesting economically today, but will also focus on wavy grain wood of other tree species and other special figured grain. For tree species subject to the Forest Reproductive Material Act (FoVG), clone testing will be carried out for later approval as tested reproductive material. To allow for early utilization, provisional approval is being sought. To support this, studies on heritability and causes of wavy grain are being conducted. As in the previous project (“fiddleback” maple), project coordinator is Dr. Michael M. Wallbraun of RLP AgroScience GmbH (Germany, Neustadt a.d.W.).
Section overview
Subjects
- Silviculture
- Genetic Resources
- Forest genetics
