This paper examines wood anatomy as it relates to safranine solution penetration in Samanea saman, which belongs to the family Mimosoideae and is native to Bangladesh. | Turk J Agric For 33 (2009) 155-163 © TÜBİTAK doi: Observation of Liquid Permeability Related to Anatomical Characteristics in Samanea saman Sheikh Ali AHMED, Su Kyoung CHUN* Department of Wood Science and Engineering, College of Forest and Environmental Sciences, Kangwon National University, Chunchon 200-701, Republic of KOREA Received: Abstract: This paper examines wood anatomy as it relates to safranine solution penetration in Samanea saman, which belongs to the family Mimosoideae and is native to Bangladesh. The wood of this species was characterized by diffuse-porous vessels with simple perforations, alternate and opposite vestured intervessel pits, gums in heartwood vessels, vascicentric paratracheal axial parenchyma, lozenge-aliform, confluent prismatic crystals in fiber, and chambered axial parenchyma cells. Different anatomical features affect longitudinal and lateral liquid permeability. Herein microstructures that controlled liquid penetration are described and compared. We observed that ray cell lumen diameter, end-wall pit number and diameter, ray cell length, vessel number, and both vessel and fiber diameter and length affected the depth of liquid flow. Safranine solution formed a meniscus while traveling through different types of cells. Air trapped in capillaries blocked safranine solution penetration. Following a go-stop-go cycle, the speed of penetration slowly decreased over time. Key Words: Wood anatomy, hardwood, safranine solution, meniscus, capillary phenomenon Introduction As the structure of vessels facilitates longitudinal liquid flow in living trees, it is not surprising that vessels play a primary role in liquid penetrability. Nonetheless, their effectiveness is dependent upon size, number, and distribution, and even more importantly upon the extent of extraneous materials and tyloses present, as well as upon the character of pitting that leads to contiguous cells. The factors emphasized in the present .
