Alteration of the apparent color of wood submitted to the attack of wood destroying fungi

Abstract

This work had as objective to evaluate the alteration of the color of two species of eucalipto: Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh. and Eucalyptus pilularis Smith, after submitted to the attack of the wood-destroying fungi Ganoderma applanatum and Gloeophyllum striatum, in comparison with its determined natural colors previous to the attack of these fungi, to verify the existence of a standard of color for white rot fungi and brown rot in wood species and to analyze the relation between the loss of mass and basic specific mass of the studied species. Of each species samples for determination of basic specific mass and for the determination of the color had been removed, before and after the attack of the fungi. After the attack, the yellowish standard of oliva color of the studied wood did not change in spite of the species presenting darker color. For the E. camaldulensis a relation was not observed between the variation of basic specific mass and the loss of mass throughout the tree. For the E. pilularis an increase in the loss of mass in the direction base-top was observed, independently of the relation between the variation of basic specific mass and the loss of mass throughout the tree. Both the species had been classified as highly resistant.