VARIATION IN FRUIT-, BROOD- AND SEED-SIZE AND SEED PACKAGING COST IN ALBIZIA LEBBECK (L.) BENTH.
Abstract
The fruit-, brood- and seed–size and seed packaging cost have been investigated in Albizia lebbeck (L.) Benth. by studying 100 pods from each of the three mother trees. The length of pod from the three plants (A, B and C) averaged to 19.84 ± 0.3532, 24.48 ± 0.5014 and 21.54 ± 0.3062 cm, respectively with an overall mean of 21.96 ± 0.25cm. The mean weight of pods from plants A, B and C was 3.42 ±0.0984, 3.66 ± 0.092 and 3.69 ± 0.101g and varied by 28.8, 25.3 and 29.62%, respectively. Six pods yielded no seeds. From remaining 294 pods a total of 2393 seeds were recovered. The waste seeds amounted to 13.29, 18.79 and 19.6 % of the total seeds in three mother plants, respectively. In all, 17.28% of the seeds were in waste class. Of 2393 seeds recovered in all, 39% were medium-sized (100-150 mg class), 19% were in very large category and 19% in the category of small seeds. Pod-based inter-tree similarity varied from 77.95 to 84.47% among the three trees. Brood size in A. lebbeck based on 294 pods averaged to 8.14 ± 0.156 seeds per pod varying around 32.78% (range: 1-16). Brood size in 73 healthy pods was asymmetrical around the grand mean of 9.26 ± 0.215 (CV: 19.80%). Brood size distribution was negatively-skewed. The seed weight distribution from composite sample of 2383 seeds (from 294 pods) was somewhat negatively skewed with mean seed weight 123.026 ± 0.1811 mg. The seed weight varied by 32.2 % (ranging from 14 to 245.0 mg). The weight of individual seed from healthy pods of three mother plants (30 pods from A, 30 pods from B and 13 pods from C) averaged to 119.90 ± 0.352, 134.52 ± 0.565 and 135.57 ± 0.668mg, respectively with a variation of 22.43 ± 2.14, 26.31 ± 1.75 and 23.19 ± 3.19%, respectively. Seed packaging cost, SPC1, in three mother plants averaged to 2.294 ± 0.1488, 2.4145 ± 0.1488 and 2.8150 ± 0.03018 g pericarp mass.g-1 seeds in mother plants A, B and C, respectively. The SPC1 varied among the pods around 35.53 and 33.75 % in mother A and B and 38.65% in plant C. The seed packaging cost, SPC2, was 0.2647 ± 0.1235, 0.2965 ± 0.01031 and 0.2923 ± 0.0234 g pericarp mass.seed-1 in three mother plants, respectively. SPC1 distributed normally in plant A and B. SPC2 varied 25.56% in plant A, 18.60% in plant B and 28.91% in plant C. SPC1 and SPC2 didn’t vary significantly among the mother trees but varied substantially within trees. The results are discussed in view of available literature.
