Trunk (botany)

Wood Science for Wood Culture - Past, Present and Future

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• published: 08 Jan 2013
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Event: 2012 International Wood Culture Symposium Date: Sept. 2nd, 2012 Venue: Lecture Hall, Library, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University Speaker: Pieter Baas Pieter Baas (1944) studied Biology at Leiden University, and completed his PhD thesis (cum laude) on the phylogenetic position of Ilex and putative relatives in 1975. From 1969 onwards he is associated with National Herbarium of the Netherlands (NHN), currently part of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center. From 1991--2005 he was director of the NHN. Currently is active as Professor Emeritus of Systematic Botany. His main areas of interest are in ecological and functional wood anatomy, systematic and phylogenetic plant anatomy, microscopic wood identification, biodiversity, biohistory, and wood culture. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences of the Netherlands (KNAW) and of the International Academy of Wood Science (IAWS); he is an Honorary Member of the International Association of Wood Anatomists and of the Indian Association of Plant Taxonomists; a Corresponding Membership of the Botanical Society of America; Recipients of the Linnean Gold Medal (Botany) 2003; and Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion. From 1976 onwards he is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Association of Wood Anatomists Journal. He published over 220 scientific papers, and 6 books. Abstract: Wood has inspired scientists to find explanations of tree biology and timber properties from Greek antiquity onwards. We owe a systematic account of timber as a highly diverse forest product and commodity to the Greek philosopher Theophrastus (about 2300 years BP). He emphasised the relationships between growth conditions and wood quality and could study many timbers coming from a wide geographical range, thanks to the expeditions and conquests by Alexander the Great. We owe many inventions involving the use of wood to the Chinese: timber frames in architecture and tree trunk coffins many thousands of years ago, paper making (including toilet paper and bank notes) and the manufactury of match sticks many centuries before they were in use in Europe, etc. The understanding of wood structure and properties received a new impetus with the development of the microscope in 17th century Europe, with pioneering contributions by Hooke, Grew, Malpighi and Leeuwenhoek. The development of a comparative wood science was also facilitated by the simultaneous origin of wood collections, initially forming part of Curiosity Cabinets, later as resources for teaching and research in about 130 institutional wood collections worldwide, currently curating a total number of over 1.1 million wood samples. Modern wood research is of great relevance to wood culture and society. In my talk I will only highlight a few aspects: a) microscopic identification of valuable wooden works of art, and b) the information content of wood structure as an ecological proxy for studying global climate change. Wood science continues to develop thanks to new technologies available for microscopic and chemical characterization of wood and all these new technologies hold great promise for underpinning the study of wood culture. Understanding the multiple functions of wood in the living tree is very helpful in the study of wood uses by man in past, present and future.