Annual ring
Definition
A single year's growth increment visible as a concentric band in a transverse wood section. In most temperate trees, each ring consists of a lighter early-wood (spring growth, wider cells) and a darker late-wood (summer-autumn growth, smaller cells with thicker walls).
Related terms
- Crossdating
- The matching of ring-width patterns between two or more samples to determine their relative or absolute temporal relationship. The master method of...
- Floating chronology
- A ring-width sequence whose pattern is internally consistent but whose absolute calendar position is unknown because it cannot yet be crossdated to...
- Master chronology
- A continuous, absolutely dated ring-width sequence built by overlapping many individual samples, living trees linked to old timbers and subfossil wood. Regional...
- Missing ring
- A year in which growth was so suppressed, by extreme drought, frost, or injury, that no visible ring was deposited. Missing rings...
- Sapwood
- The outer living wood of a tree, typically lighter in colour than the dark heartwood. Species have characteristic sapwood ring counts (a...
Explained in
- Dendrochronology and Forensic Timber AnalysisA single year's growth increment visible as a concentric band in a transverse wood section. In most temperate trees, each ring consists of a lighter early-wood...