Wood Properties of Wide and Narrow-crowned Variants ofWiddringtonia nodifloraPowrie (Mulanje Cedar) Growing at Zomba Mountain, Malawi

SYNOPSIS Comparisons were made of typical (wide-crowned) and atypical (narrow-crowned) forms of Malawi's indigenous fine-timber cypress tree, Widdringtonia nodiflora Powrie (Mulanje cedar) at 80 years of age for basic density, fibre length, lignin and extractive contents. Wide-crowned W. nodiflora was found to have significantly higher values (P>0,01) of unextracted and extracted wood basic density and fibre length than the narrow-crowned form. Differences between unextracted and extracted basic densities in the two forms were greater in mature wood, mostly near the sapwood, than in the sapwood. No differences were observed in lignin content. The differences between the two forms in wood properties offer scope for breeding for the improvement of wood quality, depending on the end uses required from future plantation.