The juvenile wood in greater proportion in the stem and its physical, mechanical, chemical and anatomical characteristics decrease the quality of the material. This study was undertaken to estimate the segregation age of juvenile and mature wood by tracheid length of Pinus elliottii Engel, at 30 years of age. Six trees were selected, on the basis of the dominant diameter, in a stand located in Agricultural College of Frederico Westphalen/UFSM. After cutting down, in the disk corresponding to the 0.15 meters, were marked and sectioned centrals baguettes from where was removed the initial wood of the thirty growth rings, in pith-to-bark direction, for maceration. The segregation of the two types of wood was defined by radial variation of the anatomical characteristic in study through two simple linear regressions. The results indicated that the tracheid length showed a pattern of increasing from pith to bark, indicating that the lowest values were observed near the pith and correspond to the first growth rings. The age of segregation of the Pinus elliottii wood defined by tracheid length was, approximately, ten years-old.
maturation of the wood; growth rings; wood quality
