Propriedades físicas, químicas e anatômicas da madeira de Cryptomeria japonica.

The present study aimed to evaluate the physical, chemical and anatomical properties of Cryptomeria japonica wood. For that, trees with 13 years old, from an experimental planting, were sampled. The wood was classified as low density (0.314 g cm-3), with low values of longitudinal contractions (0.31%), radial (2.09%), tangential (5.48%) and volumetric (7.57%), but high anisotropy coefficient (2.62), indicating the susceptibility of this species to drying defects. Regarding the chemical composition, it presented low levels of extractives (2.14%) and ashes (0.32%), but high content of lignin (31.36%). The tracheids have 2.18 mm length; width of 25.06 µm; lúmen diameter of 15.89 µm and wall thickness of 4.59 µm, with interesting indicators for papermaking, and presenting good quality due to the Runkel index (0.61) and felting (87.78) and medium quality for flexibility coefficient (61.23%) and wall fraction (36.94%). The characteristics of C. japonica wood indicate potential to be used as alternative to supply the demand of the industrial sector for raw material, especially in the South of Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]