Sistematización de las características de especies forestales maderables procedentes de distintas provincias del Ecuador.

Abstract

This research consisted in the systematization of the characteristics of 20 timber forest species that came from different provinces of Ecuador. Quantitative and qualitative techniques were applied to determine the botanical, organoleptic and anatomical characteristics of the woods of the selected species. For the first objective, the species were selected based on previous studies and their botanical information was validated in the Institutional Herbarium of the Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo. the selected species of the wood were organoleptically characterized based on the samples in the Wood Testing Laboratory (Xiloteca), and their anatomical characteristics were studied in the Phytopathology Laboratory of ESPOCH by staining wood cuts. For the second objective, a database was created with the botanical information of the herbarium collection, the identification coding was related to the Xiloteca information and the anatomical characteristics analyzed. For the third objective, a systematized guide was elaborated with the botanical, organoleptic and anatomical information collected, including photos of the vouchers, wood, and microscopic views of the wood. At the end of this work, it was possible to determine that 20% of the analyzed timber forest species belonged to the Fabaceae family, 10% to the Lamiaceae family, while the Anacardiaceae, Asteraceae, Betulaceae, Boraginaceae, Burseraceae, Clusiaceae, Junglandaceae, Lauraceae, Malvaceae, Melastomataceae, Meliaceae, Myristicaceae, Phyllantaceae, and Sapotaceae had 5 % each. It was possible to correctly recognize the botanical, organoleptic and anatomical characteristics of the studied species. So, it is recommended to systematize more forest species of timber interest in Ecuador.