Specific gravity and shrinkage characteristics of wood of 25 -year- old Gmelina arborea were investigated to assess the pattern of variations along and across the bole.Five trees with clear bole and similar diameter were randomly selected and felledfrom Oluwa Forest Reserve, Southwest Nigeria and used for this study. Wood samples were systematically collected from the outer, middle and inner wood sections of the radial and longitudinal positions at base 10, middle 50 and top 90% of the tree height.The mean value of specific gravity was 0.75, while the mean values for tangential shrinkage, radial shrinkage and volumetric shrinkage were 6.46%, 4.47% and 11.32% respectively.It is evidence from the results that variations in the axial and radial directions were statistically significant for all the properties evaluated while the interactions was not significant at 5% level of probability. Woods of Gmelina arborea should be treated as such in their conversion and utilization strategies.
