Anatomical Characteristics of Cork in Quercus variabilis Grown in Korea = Anatomical Characteristics of Cork in Quercus variabilis Grown in Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study aimed to investigate the anatomical characteristics of the virgin cork in Q. variabilis grown in Korea and to compare with those of the reproduction cork in Q. suber . The anatomical characteristics were observed by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. In the tangential section, the cork of Q. variabilis and Q. suber showed sometimes hexagonal shape and occasionally pentagonal and heptagonal shape. In the radial and transverse section, both species showed often hexagonal shape and seldom pentagonal and heptagonal shape. The cell wall undulations were conspicuous, especially in the radial and transverse surface. Cork of both species showed a distinct growth ring boundaries. In this study, Q. variabilis and Q. suber had 45-50 and 10-12 growth ring numbers, respectively. The cork of Q. variabilis showed smaller growth ring width with range of 0.5-2 mm than that Q. suber with range of 1-4 mm. The cork cell height of Q. variabilis and Q. suber were 16.4 ㎛ and 36.7 ㎛ in earlycork and 6.6 ㎛ and 16.2 ㎛ in latecork, respectively. The cork cell area in tangential section of Q. variabilis and Q. suber were 623 ㎛² and 830 ㎛², respectively. The cork cell wall thickness of Q. variabilis and Q. suber were 1.5 ㎛ and 1.6 ㎛ in earlycork and 1.8 ㎛ and 2.0 ㎛ in latecork, respectively. The cork cell volume of Q. variabilis and Q. suber were 13209 ㎛³ and 34106 ㎛³ in earlycork and 5724 ㎛³ and 15035 ㎛³ in latecork, respectively. The solid volume fraction of the earlycork in Q. variabilis and Q. suber were 17% and 31%, while those of latecork were 16% and 35%, respectively. It is revealed that there were some differences in the anatomical properties between Q. variabilis and Q. suber.