WOOD OF PLATANUS KERRII

Mature wood of extant Platanus kerrii Gagnep., native to Laos and Vietnam, is described for the first time. Its general characteristics are similar to other Platanus species; it has narrow, mostly solitary vessels, perforation plates both simple and scalariform, opposite intervessel pitting, diffuse-in-aggregates axial parenchyma, mostly wide (> 10-seriate) rays that usually are homocellular. Rays are wider (up to 30 cells wide) than in other Extant species and in this feature P. kerrii resembles Cretaceous and Paleogene platanoid woods more than other extant species do. Vessel element lengths are similar to other species, although the incidence of scalariform perforation plates is greater than in other extant Platanus species.