Ethnobotanical Leaflets 12: 484-486. 2008.

 

 

Resprouting in Different Geographical Locations

 

Jegan, G. and Muthuchelian, K.

 

Centre for Biodiversity and Forest studies, Department of Bioenergy

School of Energy, Environmental and Natural Resources, Madurai Kamaraj University

Madurai – 625 021, Tamil Nadu, India

Corresponding Author: drchelian1960@yahoo.co.in

 

Issued 13 July 2008

 

Abstract

             The resprouting of tree species is dependent not only on the species concerned but also upon its geographical location. In this paper, the resprouting of Eucalyptus is reported for the hill region of Tamil Nadu.

Key Words: Eucalyptus, light, resprouting, stumps.

 

Introduction

            Eucalyptus sp. is planted all over Tamil Nadu under afforestration scheme of Tamil Nadu Forest Department. After the formation of wood, Forest department cut off the trees and leave the stumps as such. 10 cm tall stump is enough for the resprouting of Eucalyptus (Jacobs and Metro, 1981). In this paper we compare the resprouting of Eucalyptus in different regions which vary in their geographical locations. We selected Pachakumachi hill and Oragadam for our study.

 

Materials and Methods

Study sites:

            The details of our study sites are given in Table 1. Our study sites varied in all important respects. 

           

 

Table1. Details of study sites.

 

Parameters

Pachakumachi Hill

Oragadam

Geographical position

9º 35´ N, 77˚ 15´ E

12° 50′  N, 79° 56′ E

Altitude

1700 m

16 m

Maximum temperature

31 °C

42 °C

Minimum temperature

17 °C

20 °C

Annual Rainfall

2726 mm

1300 mm

 

Resprouting:

            We screened the resprouting of eucalyptus with respect to the distance between the stumps and the number shoots produced per stump.

 

Result and Discussion

            The rate of resprouting is greater in Oragadam. The distance between the stumps is highest in the lower altitude region. In the Pachakumachi hills, multishoot formation was highest. The number of stumps that did not resprout is also high in the Pachakumachi hill region (Table 2).

            The resprouting of the species is defined by the availability of light to the stumps (Jegan et al., 2008). The stumps in Oragadam received more light than the stumps in Pachakumachi hill, thus the resprouting rate was also greater in Oragadam. But the multishoot formation is more at Pachakumachi hill, because the stump diameter is high.

 

Table 2.  Findings of our study.

 

Parameters

Pachakumachi Hill

Orgadam

Number of trees planted

75

75

Number of trees cut down

25

25

Stump diameter (cm)

73.6 ± 1.7

18.3 ± 1.2

Number of shoots per stumps

15 ± 2

7 ± 1

Not resprouted stumps

20

8

Distance between individuals (m)

8 ± 0.5

10 ± 0.8

 

Acknowledgement

            Our sincere thanks are due to UGC for their financial support.

 

References

 

Jacobs, M.R., and Metro, A. (1981) Eucalyptus for planting. FAO Forestry Series 11, 677      pp.

Jegan, G., Ramesh, G., and Muthuchelian, K., (2008) Resprouting of Pioneer and Climax          species in the Pachakumachi Hills, Cumbum Valley, Western Ghats, India.      Ethnobotanical Leaflets 12, 343- 347.