Studies on chemical compositions of Salix hybrids’ wood

The chemical compositions of Salix hybrids’ wood or clones largely determine their suitability for various end-uses. The main objective of this study was to determine the clonal variation of chemical composition in 3 year old 37 Salix hybrids’ clones grown in Naganji experimental area, Dr. Y.S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan (HP). Wood samples from three clones per Salix hybrid were randomly taken for this study. Chemical compositions of Salix hybrids wood showed significant interclonal variation, indicating the possibility of identifying clones with superior wood properties. The mean values of cold water soluble extractive, hot water soluble extractive, Alcohol-benzene soluble extractive, holocellulose content, lignin content and ash content were varied from 2.83 (UHFS299 clone) to 8.23% (UHFS221 clone), 3.98 (UHFS112) clone to 10.52% (UHFS165 clone), 2.58 (UHFS335 clone) to 6.69% (UHFS267 clone), 62.63 (UHFS299 clone) to 81.47% (UHFS221 clone), 14.30 (UHFS267 clone) to 34.18% (UHFS299 clone) and 0.45 (UHFS112 clone) to 1.47% (UHFS111 clone), respectively. In general, the results exhibited that all the Salix hybrids’ clones have good potentials for pulp and paper production.