In this procedure the components of the wax were separated based on their chemical properties. Each one of these peaks represents a single component of the wax. The wax is a complex mixture of components that can be grouped into specific organic classes - the most common ones are alkanes, alcohols, fatty acids, wax esters, and sterols. We added an internal standard so that we could actually quantify the amount of wax we extracted. The top three pie charts represent the willow clones and the bottom two represent the hybrid poplars.
Large differences are obvious between the willow clones.
For example, S. dasylcados has a much higher percentage of alkanes compared to S. purpurea or S. eriocephala whereas S. eriocephala has a large amount of alcohols. Also note how similar the hybrid poplars are. There is almost no difference in their wax composition. In this graph we are looking at the concentration of only one group of organic compounds, the alkanes, over the three sampling periods. Notice how differently each willow clone behaves over the growing season.