APPLICATION OF A RESIN CASTING METHOD TO WOOD ANATOMY OF SOME JAPANESE FAGACEAE SPECIES

A resin casting method was applied to the wood anatomy of some Japanese species of Fagaceae. Dry wood blocks were embedded in polystyrene and then cell walls were completely removed by alternate and repeated treatments with hydrogen peroxide/acetic acid solution and sulphuric acid. Resin casts were observed in a scanning electron microscope. Long casts of vessels were easily separated, occasionally accompanied by casts of vasicentric tracheids, vasicentric parenchyma and contact ray parenchyma cells. In lateral walls of vessels of Fagus crenata, and of latewood vessels of Castanea crenata and Castanopsis cuspidata, pits were sparse, and the surface of the cast was rather smooth. But in vessels of other species and in earlywood vessels of the latter two species, pits were densely spaced. Differences between fibre tracheids and libriform fibres were obvious in the distribution and the size of pits. Pits of thick-walled elements had long pit canals. Cell tips of tracheal elements and networks of intercellular spaces between ray cells were also visualised clearly.