0168-B4

Provenance Variation on Growth Performance and Some Floral Biology of Casuarina junghuhniana Miq. at Chachoengsao, Thailand

Rungtip Sengloung ¹, Kamolpun Namwongprom ¹, Lily Kaveeta ¹, Suree Bhumibhamon ², Damrong Pipatwatthanakul ²

Abstract

Casuarina junghuhniana Miq. is an exotic species originated in Indonesia. It is a promising fast growing and nitrogen fixing tree. In Thailand, people use it for construction as post, pole, and fish trap. This study aimed to determine genetic variability on morphological characteristics and evaluated the growth potential of the species in the international provenance trials established at Lad Krating Plantation in Chachoengsao, Thailand. 28 provenances (seed lots) of C. junghuhniana Miq. were planted in August, 1996 by Latinized Row-column Design for 4 replications. Survival percentages, height, and diameter at breast height (DBH) were measured at ages of 38, 44, 50, and 56 months. Morphological characteristics of flowers, and pollen were investigated.

The result indicated that growth performance of the species was adapted well under Lad Krating Plantation condition. At ages of 38, 44, 50, and 56 months, The overall survival percentage were 80.07, 78.61, 76.61, and 74.96, tree height were 6.40, 7.31, 8.04, and 8.95 m, and DBH were 5.51, 6.22, 7.00, and 7.24 cm, respectively. There was highly significant correlation coefficient among altitude of provenance, height, D₁₀, and DBH parameters. Provenances Nos. 18, 19, and 21 from low altitude in Indonesia showed best performance when testing in this site. The morphological study of flower revealed that monoecious can occurred in this species and pollen sculpturing could be investigated for the key to species. Intensive investigation on flowering pattern are required for future study.

Introduction

Casuarina junghuhniana Miq. is a tree with a restricted natural distribution in the highland regions of Eastern Indonesia to East Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Timor, and the lesser Sunda group of islands (Phengklai, 1981;National Research Council, 1984; Pinyopusarerk & House, 1993; Mile, 1996 ). The early introduction from either Penang or Singapore around 1900 gave good impression to tree growers and has been introduced to grow in private land in different planting systems. Later on, it was found that this is a hybrid material between C. junghuhniana and C. equisetifolia and can only be propagated by using vegetative propagation with narrow genetic base clone. Other study indicated that C. junghuhniana growth was better adapted except on coastal sites and other species had greater resistance to wind damage than C. equisetifolia (Kan, 1987).

C. junghuhniana is a broad leave plants (angiosperm) in family Casuarinaceae. The foliage like conifer (gymnosperm). Male and female flower occur on separate plant (dioecious) as in the case of C. cunninghamiana and C. glauca. Male flowers are in wholes in cylindrical spikes (catkins) terminal on deciduous branchlets. The pollen is light and thus favors wind pollination.

For tree improvement program, provenance trials are aimed for provenance selection. Superior provenance should performs best in term of a set of predetermined criteria, often including survival, promising good growth, pest resistance and other indicators of adaptability to the planting site (Talbert, 1992). Testing in other sites may give different outcome depending on the species complexity.

In any planting site in Thailand, plants are almost universally subjected to a variety of stresses as land available for tree planting is unsuitable for agriculture. Their responses to these stresses can usually be grouped into one of three categories; visible injury, retarded growth and development, or interference with physiological processes, which is responsible for the other two categories of injuries. Growth responses include reduction in height and diameter growth, leaf area increment, root growth, flowering, and production of flowers and seeds (Kozlowski et al., 1991). Additional, the numbers of preformed leaf primordia vary among genotypes and bud location on the tree (Remphrey & Davidson, 1994), with tree age and often are linked to the latitude of plant origin (Cannell & Jackson, 1976). Research on tree growth and development of C. junghuhniana is however relatively limited.

The study is aimed for investigating the provenance variation in surviving, growth parameters, as well as certain floral biology of the species.

Materials and Methods

Plant materials and growth conditions

The provenance trial of C. junghuhniana was established in August 1996. Bulked seedlots of 28 provenances were supplied by CSIRO, Australian Tree Seed Center (Table 1). The experimental design is a Latinized Row-column Design (William & Talbot, 1993) for 4 replications for the number of 28 seedlots. Each plot consists of 25 trees spaced at 2 x 2 m.

Table 1 Details of seed sources in the provenance trials of C. junghuhniana established at Lad Krating Plantation, Chachoengsao in August 1996.

The study on C. junghuhniana provenances was carried out at Lad Krating Plantation in Chachoengsao province, Thailand which located at latitude 13_ 42´ N and longitude 101_ 06´ E, altitude of 80 m above mean sea level (asl), mean annual temperature is 28 ^_C, and daily mean temperature varies between 18 and 39 ^_C, mean annual rainfall is 1220 mm.

Growth performance

Periodic assessments of tree growth were made in the provenance trials at 38, 44, 50, and 56 months of age, in October and April years 1999-2000. Survival percentages, height, and DBH of C. junghuhniana were investigated.

Floral biology

Flower

Male and female inflorescence were observe both in field and laboratory scale. The photo was taken under sterio microscope.

Pollen

Fresh mature pollens of provenance Nos. 17, 22, and 28 were collected from the mature male flower. Then placed them on the stub, drying in the air and the subsequent vacuum in the coater and pollen structure were taken under SEM (Moore, et al., 1991).

Results

Growth performance

Survival percentage

Average survival percentage of all provenances at 38, 44, 50, and 56 months after planting were 80.07 (64-95%), 78.61 (64-92%), 76.61 (62-90%), and 74.96 (62-90%), respectively (Figure 1).

From the result, there was high survival percentage in Lad Krating Plantation. While the report by Luechanimitchit and Viriyabuncha (2001) indicated at 48 months of C. junghuhniana at Si Sa Ket province, North eastern of Thailand (latitude 14º 35´ N, longitude 104º 127´ E, 130 m asl, average rainfall 1200-1500 mm, and average temperature 28 ºC) showed the average survival percentage at 58.68 (26-88%). The soil type and fertility, precipitation and cultural practices may cause the difference of survival percentage at difference planting sites.

Figure 1 Survival percentage of C. junghuhniana at Lad Krating Plantation Chachoengsao, Thailand

Figure 2 Height of C. junghuhniana at Lad Krating Plantation Chachoengsao, Thailand

Height

The average tree height of C. junghuhniana were 6.40, 7.31, 8.04, and 8.95 m at 38, 44, 50, and 56 months after planting, respectively. At various ages, the least average height was belong to provenance Nos. 23, 27, and 3 which originated from altitude 1460, 1350, and 1460 m asl, respectively (Figure 2). While provenance Nos. 18, 19, and 21, which originated at low altitude perform superior height.

DBH

DBH is an important character and generally used in determining growth of tree. Highly significant variation in DBH was found among provenances at all ages studied while variation among blocks was insignificant. At age of 38 months average DBH was 5.51 cm and also DBH were 6.22, 7.00, 7.24 at 44, 50, 56 months after planting, respectively (Figure 3). While the overall average DBH of C. junghuhniana at Sri Sa Ket site were 1.78 and 2.89 cm at age of 36 and 48 months, respectively (Luechanimitchit & Viriyabuncha, 2001).

Figure 3 DBH of C. junghuhniana at Lad Krating Plantation Chachoengsao, Thailand

Floral biology

Flower

Male inflorescence showed 3 types of male floret, which dried floret, aborted anther floret and mature floret. Dried floret was the immature floret, the flowering parts were incomplete, dry and not function. Aborted anther floret was the floret which developed the flowering parts but anther was not producing any pollen. Mature floret was the floret developed completely prior to the pollination time. All types of floret could be occurred in the same inflorescence. When the tree was young, male inflorescence were shorter and the amount of mature floret less then the older one.

Female inflorescence was formed in small cones on lateral branches. Floret bract was enclosed two lateral bracteoles which subtended the gynoecium occurred at branch. Thus the observation of female inflorescence was difficult to notice unless it became to stage of fruit set.

Figure 4 Pollen sculpturing of the different type show rugulate with microechinate (A) in provenance no. 17 and 22, and rugulate (C) in provenance no. 28 (D)

Pollen

Pollen was single grains with 3 aperture (triporate) arrange in equatorial zone (trizonoporate), diameter 30-32.5 ìm when mounting with water. Under SEM, pollen of provenance No. 28 was rugulate (with sculpturing element elongated sideways >1 ìm long and arranged in an irregular pattern). In provenance Nos. 17 and 22 show rugulate with microechinate (Figure 4), which is the typical surface of Casuarina pollen (Moore et al., 1991). There was triporate (3 porus aperture) with annulus. While sculpturing of Casuarinaceae is reticulate with sculpturing elements rides arranged in a network which has gaps (lumina) >1 ìm; breadth of ridges (muri) equal to, or narrower than, the width the lumina (adapted from Tseng-Chieng Huang, 1972 and Moore et al., 1991) with (2-) 3 (-5) porus. Sculpturing of C. equisetifolia is reticulate (Erdtman, 1954) with 3 porus.

Discussion

C. junghuhniana show high survival percentage at Lad Krating plantation. While the report by Luechanimitchit and Viriyabuncha (2001) showed poor survival percentage of 58.68 at 48 months of C. junghuhniana at Si Sa Ket site as know as xeric area of Thailand. The soil type and fertility, precipitation and cultural practices may cause the difference adaptability.

As we know adaptation of species under the natural condition may caused genetic variation among seed sources. For example, seedling of Aleppo pine from xeric provenances has greater resistance to desiccation than seedlings from mesic provenances (Tognetti, et al., 1997). In the present study, growth performance of C. junghuhniana differed among seed sources. Provenance originated from low altitude performed well in this study and it was interesting to determine the clinal variation in relation to altitude. Correlation coefficients between altitude of provenance and all growth performance traits studies were shown in Table 2. The correlation between altitude of provenances and average value of growth characteristics were strongly correlated as were negative correlation among height and DBH. The provenances that perform great height tend to have great DBH. Hense, provenances from low altitude tends to have better height and DBH when grown at Lad Krating Plantation. Comparing with the trials at Lushoto, Tanzania (latitude 4º 38´ S, longitude 38º 17´ E, 1500 m asl, average rainfall 1100 mm, and average temperature 18º C), most of the Java and Bali provenances which are high altitude sources (1350-2500 m asl) performed better compared to the low altitude Timor and Wetar provenances (5-600 m asl) (Mwihomeke et al., 2002). The different in tree performance may be caused by the differences in adaptability of each provenance through long term natural selection. Species and site interaction at the planting sites should be well matches with the appropriate provenances.

Table 2 Metrix correlation of C. junghuhniana growth characteristics

**p<0.01 Highly significant correlation

Temperature has profound effects on distribution and growth of woody plants. For example climate zones which are determined largely by temperature variations related to altitude and latitude climatic zone also support vegetation types that are determined by natural selection for various temperature regimes (Grace, 1987). Altitudinal limits for tree growth and largely determined by low temperature. Growth of woody plants is very sensitive to temperature and a change of only a few degrees Celsius often leads to a change in the rate of growth (Kozlowski et al., 1991).

In addition, C. junghuhniana was dioecious plant in previous literature but in this study male and female inflorescence can occurred in the same tree (monoecious). The mechanisms of this occurrence still not clear. While pollen sculpturing showed 2 type of them, which useful for identification both in genus and family. Thus floral biology of the species should be investigated in the future.

Conclusion

To introduce C. junghuhniana to the new land, the provenance originated from the nearly altitude to the new place is one of criteria for selection. Because similarity climate will tend to incline the species adaptability and perform excellent growth characters.

Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge AFAFRI and CIDA, the supporting organizations for TREE Link project to conducted this research. I appreciate all the committee who gave valuable advice along of my study.

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¹ Graduate Student Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900 Thailand
²Department of Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, Chatuchak, Bangkok, 10900 Thailand.
^*E-mail address: [email protected]