The purpose of the present study is to throw light on the termination of diameter growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in old age in northernmost Finnish Lapland. The material consists of thirty over-mature, dying or already dead standing trees grown in natural state. In 1907 the stand was marked for cutting, but the harvest was never carried through. Now the old labels served as a means for cross-dating the year of the final termination of growth.
It was found that as pine becomes senile its annual ring formation becomes incomplete. At first diameter growth stops in the middle part of the stem, then at the butt end, and at last on the canopy level. No correlation between the mean temperature of July and the dying of the tree was found. The average age for dying for the pine in the stand was 420–450 years. After the tree has died it takes about 35–40 years before it has become a silvery, branchless dead bole.
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