SEED SOURCE VARIABILITY IN SOME SEED AND SEEDLING CHARACTERISTICS OF TWENTY PROVENANCES OF ACACIA NILOTICA WILLD. EX. DEL

摘要

Twenty provenances of Acacia nilotica ranging from 11°N to 32°N latitude, 13°W to 83°E longitude and 4 to 430 m elevation covering 5 countries namely India, Sudan, Senegal, Yemen and Pakistan belonging to 5 sub sp. namely tomentosa, indica var. jaquemontii, indica var. cuppressiformis, nilotica and indica were studied for the variation in certain seed and seedling characteristics ' under nursery and field conditions of Jabalpur (India). The existence of significant variation among seed sources for some seed and seedling traits has been observed. Provenances of A.nilotica var. jaquemontii were found to be superior to others in respect to the observed traits. Variation obtained for seed morphology has been assigned to be geographical. A significant relationship was found between seed weight and growth of seedlings in nursery and plantations indicating it to be an important trait for the early selection of provenances. Collar diameter and root length were found to be correlating significantly (P<0.01) with majority of the seedling traits of nursery. Most of the seedling traits were found to be having no correlation with the geographical locations of their occurrence. Maximum variation (CV) among the provenances was found for seedling biomass, nodulation and VAM infection.