UruDendro, a public dataset of 64 cross-section images and manual annual ring delineations of Pinus taeda L.

Key message 

The automatic detection of tree-ring boundaries and other anatomical features using image analysis has progressed substantially over the past decade with advances in machine learning and imagery technology, as well as increasing demands from the dendrochronology community. This paper presents a publicly available dataset of 64 annotated images of transverse sections of commercially grown Pinus taeda L. trees from northern Uruguay, presenting 17 to 24 annual rings. The collection contains several challenging features for automatic ring detection, including illumination and surface preparation variation, fungal infection (blue stains), knot formation, missing bark or interruptions in outer rings, and radial cracking. This dataset can be used to develop and test automatic tree ring detection algorithms. The dataset presented here was used to develop the Cross-Section Tree-Ring Detection (CS-TRD) method, an open-source automated ring-detection algorithm for cross-sectioned images.

Keywords 
Image processing; Tree ring area; Tree ring width; Wood cross sections; Dendrometry; Automatic measurement

Publication 
Marichal, H., Passarella, D., Lucas, C. et al. UruDendro, a public dataset of 64 cross-section images and manual annual ring delineations of Pinus taeda L.. Annals of Forest Science 82, 25 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13595-025-01296-5

Data availability/Code availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15110647. The Python code used is available in https://github.com/hmarichal93/uruDendro.

Handling editor 
Irène Gabriel