Wood Properties of Two Selected Pioneer Species: Ludai (Sapium Sp.) and Mahang (Macaranga Sp.)

It is planned that future forest plantation program should include pioneer species as they are fast growing and probably easy to care for. In this paper, two pioneer timbers, i.e., ludai (Sapium sp.) and mahang (Macaranga sp.) with potential for forest plantation are described. This paper reports selected wood properties, viz. density, shrinkage from green to air dry, modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, compression stress, shear stress parallel to the grain and also anatomical features of two pioneer timbers, i.e., ludai (Sapium sp.) and mahang (Macaranga sp.).