Variations in anatomical properties of Rhizophora Racemosa (Leechm) and Rhizophora Harrisonii (G. mey) in a nigerian mangrove forest ecosystem

This study was carried out to determine the variation in the anatomical properties of the two most prominent species (R. racemosa and R. harrisonii) in Nigerian mangrove forest ecosystem. This was done with the aim of assessing their suitability for pulp and paper manufacturing. The trees samples were obtained from Stubbs Creek forest reserve, in Delta State. The diameter of all the tree samples was between 10 and 30 cm. After harvesting, the wood samples were collected from the sapwood and heartwood sections (radial direction) and at 10, 50 and 90% of the trees’ height (the longitudinal positions). The mean fibre length values obtained were 1.767, 1.547 for sapwood and Heartwood of R. racemosa, while that of R harrisonii were 1.794 and 1.634 for sapwood and heartwood respectively. The mean fibre diameters of these two species were, 36.92 and 35.25 for the sapwood and heartwood of R racemosa and 34.307 and 34.090 for the sap wood and heart wood of R. harrisonii respectively. The Runkel ratio means for R. racemosa were 0.94 and 0.96 for sap and heartwood respective, while the values for R. harrisonii were 0.96 and 0.99 for sapwood and heartwood respectively. The results of this work indicate that the anatomical properties of these two species compared favourably with other species like Gmelina arborea, Pinus caribaea and Eucalyptus popularly grown for pulp and paper in Nigeria. The values indicate the suitability of this mangrove genus for pulp and paper production in a place where there is shortage of wood material for this purpose.