Annual Variation in Flowering Phenology, Pollination, Mating System, and Pollen Yield in Two Natural Populations of Schima wallichii (DC.) Korth

Abstract

Background. Schima wallichii is a highly valuable tree of tropical forest in north-east Himalaya region that grows naturally in a wide range of altitudes between 750 and 2400 m asl with varying environments. Flowering phenology of tropical tree species at population level is generally ignored and therefore a detailed knowledge of flowering and fruiting patterns of important multipurpose tree species is critical to the successful management of forest genetic resources. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted at two different altitudes (i.e., 750 m and 900 m asl) in the tropical semideciduous forest of north-east Himalaya. The floral phenology including flowering synchrony in the populations, anthesis, anther dehiscence, stigma receptivity, pollinators visitation frequency, and mating system including index of self-incompatibility were worked out in Schima wallichii according to the ear-marked standard methods given by various scientists for each parameter. Results. The flowering period in Schima wallichii varied from 33 to 42 days with mean synchrony of 0.54 to 0.68 between the populations. The stigma was receptive up to 2.5 days only and showed slightly protandrous type of dichogamy. Average pollen production ranged between 6.90 × 107 pollen per tree in 2007 and 15.49 × 108 pollen per tree in 2011. A three-year masting cycle was noticed in this species. The frequency of visitation of honey bees was fairly high (5.2 ± 1.12 visits/flower/hour) as compared to other pollinators. The hand pollination revealed maximum fruit (74.2 ± 5.72%) and seed (70.8 ± 7.46%) settings. Conclusions. The variation in flowering phenology and pollen yield individually and annually along with temporal separation in anther dehiscence and pollinator's visitation cause pollen limited reproduction, which ultimately influences the reproductive success in Schima wallichii.

Mating system and seedling growth of five tropical tree species

“…Though the taxonomic, ethnobotanical, medicinal and pharmacological extent of the studied tree species were worked by You et al (2003) for Bombax ceiba, Subhashini et al (2011) for Erythrina stricta, Chanda et al (2013) for Mesua ferrea, MISHRA et al (1990) for Lagerstroemia speciosa and Li-Zhen and Li, (1997) for Schima wallichii, the detailed breeding systems of all the selected species have been ignored repulsively so far. The seed production for these tree species, especially fruitification is less than 50 per cent (in case of Bombax ceiba and Erythrina stricta) and below 70 per cent (in case of Mesua ferrea, Lagerstroemia speciosa and Schima wallichii), which also follows temporal pattern of production (KHANDURI et al, 2015). The present study of controlled crosses would augment fruitification potential in all the five investigated tropical tree species.…”

“…The seed-set percentage was calculated by dividing the average number of seeds per fruit/pod by the average number of ovules per flower for each spe- cies in every treatment. The ovule number in all the five species has been determined (KHANDURI et al, 2015). To compare fruit-set among hand-selfed and hand crossed treatments, and among open pollinated and hand-crossed treatments, Chi-square analysis was performed (ZAR 1999) to know the pattern of variability between these treatments.…”

“…Corollas of the flower are used to treat uterine disorders and hysteria (TAMRAKAR, 1992;LI-ZHEN;LI, 1997). The knowledge about the biology of reproductive systems of the selected five aforesaid tree species is skimpy except for the few studies done by Raju et al (2005), Khanduri et al (2013), Khanduri (2014) and Khanduri et al (2015). Though the taxonomic, ethnobotanical, medicinal and pharmacological extent of the studied tree species were worked by You et al (2003) for Bombax ceiba, Subhashini et al (2011) for Erythrina stricta, Chanda et al (2013) for Mesua ferrea, MISHRA et al (1990) for Lagerstroemia speciosa and Li-Zhen and Li, (1997) for Schima wallichii, the detailed breeding systems of all the selected species have been ignored repulsively so far.…”

Crossing potential of open pollination in Cajuputi seedling seed orchard at Paliyan, Gunungkidul

“…Kondisi yang sama juga ditemukan pada penelitian ini, pola pembungaan provenan dari Australia Bagian Utara mengalami keterlambatan berbunga dibandingkan dengan provenan lainnya. Fenomena ini kemungkinan karena pola pembungaan suatu jenis dapat bervariasi dari waktu ke waktu dan dari satu tempat ke tempat lain (Khanduri, et al, 2013). Faktor lingkungan abiotik seperti suhu dan ketersediaan air (Lesica & Kittelson, 2010;Giménez Benavides et al, 2010) panjang hari (Richardson et al, 2013) maupun faktor biotik seperti kelimpahan agen penyerbuk (Kilkenny & Galloway, 2008) dan interaksi keduanya mempunyai pengaruh yang kuat terhadap keberhasilan reproduksi suatu jenis.…”

Genetic differentiation in <i>Schima</i> (Theaceae) in West Java, Indonesia, and Amami Islands, Japan

“…Okun et al (2008) mention that longlived species (such as trees) and out-crossing species have greater genetic variations within than between populations. S. wallichii in Himalaya is partially self-incompatible species and many insects visit its flowers (Khanduri et al 2013), this species seems to make seeds mostly by out crossing. These characteristics may decrease the genetic variation among sites.…”