Seed Source Variation on Pod and Seed Parameters in  Caesalpinia sappan  Linn.

P. Arthanari <sup>1</sup>; K. Krishnaveni <sup>2</sup>; N. Mariappan<sup>3</sup>

Seed Source Variation on Pod and Seed Parameters in Caesalpinia sappan Linn.

P. Arthanari ¹

, K. Krishnaveni ²

, N. Mariappan³

1Indian Forest Service, Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA), Dehradun, Uttarkhand, India-248006;
2 Professor, Department of Seed Science and Technology, TNAU, Tamil Nadu, India-641 003;
3 Assistant Professor, Vanavarayar Institute of Agriculture, Manakkadavu, Tamil Nadu, India ï¿½ 642103

Author

Correspondence author
Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 4 doi: 10.5376/tgmb.2013.03.0004
Received: 19 Jul., 2013 Accepted: 23 Aug., 2013 Published: 01 Sep., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Preferred citation for this article:

Arthanari et al., Seed Source Variation on Pod and Seed Parameters in Caesalpinia sappan Linn., Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding, Vol.3, No.4 19-24 (doi: 10.5376/tgmb.2013.03.0004)

Abstract

Investigations were carried out with 15 seed sources of Caesalpinia sappan assembled from Kerala and Tamil Nadu to study the seed source variation at Forest College and Research Institute, Mettupalayam. Physical characters of pod and seed expressed wider variability in the evaluated pod and seed characteristics among the evaluated 15 seed sources. Nagercoil seed source recorded the highest values on pod length. The other evaluated pod characters also expressed variability while the maximum expression was with seed number per pod and the minimum with pod width and superior variability expression with Nagercoil for pod length, Pariyaram, Kannur and Nagercoil for pod breadth, Vellanikarai (pod fresh weight), Palakkad (seed number per pod), Thalavaadi and Nallekkadu (pod to seed ratio). Variation in seed characteristics among seed sources; Pariyaram (seed breadth), Palakkad (100 seed weigth) and Pariyaram (germination per cent) recorded maximum variability for seed physical characters. However the present study expressed that the evaluated pod traits could not be achieved in a single seed sources except for 100 seeds weight.

Keywords

Caesalpinia sappan;Variation; Seed; Pod; Germination

Expanding the genetic resource base of important tree species is one of the globally accepted objectives of tree improvement, which are having highly potential value as a natural dye and highly suitable for agro forestry and wasteland alleviation inspite of serving as a key species in medicinal values. Recently genetic improvement of multipurpose tree species has assumed a greater importance in India (Vasudeva et al., 1999). Caesalpinia sappan is one of the potential edible dye-yielding crop, that is considered as one of the versatile species of global concern. The success of any tree improvement lies in careful utilization of the variability available and clear understanding of the nature and magnitude of the variability. Testing of an array of seed sources is aimed at screening naturally available variation for reforestation or for further breeding (Willain, 1985).

The choice of provenance and seed source is important since it decides the genetic quality and the physiological potential of the seeds. The seed source variations and their control by the environmental and edaphic factor were reported by the researchers in many tree species (Mishra and Banerjee, 1995; Thapliyal and Dhiman, 1997; Gera et al., 1999). Expression of seed source variability is evident not only on phenotypic characteristics of the tree (Zobel and Talbert, 1984) but also on its reproductive potential mostly on the reproductive components the pod and seed.

Caesalpinia sappan is one of the versatile natural dye yielding trees that can be grown on a large scale in tropical areas and attaining economic importance in recent years (Chennagowda et al., 2001). Caesalpinia sappan commonly called as sappan wood or East Indian red wood is a medium sized natural dye yielding medicinal plant native to India found in wild and as an escape in south India, West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.

In spite of these attractive features, the tree species suffers from a drawback i.e., it is low viability. The basic objective/ aim of a tree improvement programme is to select a better seed source for propagation. Hence, there arises an urgent need for exploiting the best seed source for propagation potential (Umarani et al., 1997; Vijayaraghavan, 2000). But the available information on the existing seed sources is not sufficient. Therefore, it was considered highly imperative to study the pod and seed characteristics variations, with a view to use this species in future breeding programme and to encourage the farmers to plant this species to improve their economic standing.

Results and Discussion

The analysis of variance showed that there was a wide variation in pod and seed characters depending on seed sources. Natural variation occurs as a product of evolution and serves as a raw material which is renewable and utilizable involving basic tools such as selection and manipulation of the variability in the biological population. Expression of seed source variability is evident not only on phenotypic characteristics of the tree (Zobel and Talbert, 1984) but also on its reproductive potential mostly on the reproductive components the pod and seed.

Variability in pod characteristics of different seed sources:

In the present study observations on physical characters of pod and seed expressed wider variability in the evaluated pod and seed characteristics viz., pod length, pod width, pod fresh weight, pod to seed ratio and seed number among the evaluated 15 seed sources. The variations within these components were exhibited to a tune of 15.54%, 11.69%, 34.4%, 40.3% and 42.0% respectively in the evaluated pod length, pod width, pod fresh weight, pod to seed ratio and seed number characteristics of pods (Table 1). Similar variations in physical parameters of pod fruit^-1 due to sources were reported in teak (Murthy, 1973; Manonmani and Vanangamudi, 1997). In the study, among the seed sources Nagercoil recorded the highest values on pod length and was followed by Thalavaadi sources while, Coimbatore source exhibited the poorest variability on pods. The other pod characters evaluated also expressed variability while the maximum expression was with seed number pod^-1 and the minimum with pod width and superior variability expression with Nagercoil (pod length), Pariyaram, kannur and Nagercoil for pod breadth, Vellanikarai (pod fresh weight), Palakkad (seed number pod^-1), Thalavaadi and Nallekkadu (pod to seed ratio), Pariyaram (seed breadth), Palakkad (100 seed weigth) and Pariyaram (germination per cent).

Table 1 Influence of seed characters on pod characters

However, the present study expressed that the evaluated pod traits could not be achieved in a singleseed sources (Table 1; Figure1). On extraction of seed from pods in each of the source revealed that the pod to seed percentage ranged between 15.52 to 25.58 per cent among the seed sources and was the highest with Thalavaadi and Nallekadu seed sources while the lowest was obtained with Kozhinjampara indicating that influence of genetic and environmental factors on seed filling of Caesalpinia sappan as expressed by many tree researchers (Sekar, 2003; Gurunathan, 2006).

Figure 1 Influence of seed sources on pod length and pod width (cm)

Variability in seed characteristics of different seed sources

The variation observed in the present study for the physical seed characteristics in terms of length, breath and weight were also highly significant among the evaluated seed sources of the present study which was in concomitance with the results of several researchers (Srimathi and Kulkarni, 1982; Bagchi and Sharma, 1989 in sandal; Manonmani, 1997 in teak; Kumaran, 1991; Sindhu, 1995 in neem; Toky et al., 1996 in A. lebbeck; Srimathi, 1997 in Amla). The variability among the seed sources for the evaluated seed characteristics were in the order of 12%, 20%, and 33% respectively in the evaluated seed length, seed breadth and 100 seed weight characteristics of seeds (Table 2; Figure 2). Among the seed characters the highest values were obtained with Pariayaram and Palakkad seed sources. Similar variation on physical characteristics of seed were observed by Joshi et al. (1983) in Acacia nilotica; Kumaran (1991), Sivasamy and Karivaratharaju (1993), Umarani et al. (1997a) and Sivagnanam et al. (1997) in Azadirachta indica; Arya (1990) in Tecoma undulate; Jenner (1995) in Madhuca latifolia; Manonmani and Vanangamudi (1997) in Tectona grandis which were focused largely to the variations in ecological factors observed with the place of collection (mother land) of the source material.

Table 2 Influence of seed sources on seed characters

Figure 2 Influence of seed sources on 100 seed weight (g)

The germination of seeds ranged from 33 to 95 per cent and among the sources (Table 2). Pariyaram recorded the maximum germination (95%), it was closely followed the Kannur recording 87% germination while the minimum germination (33%) was observed with Coimbatore. Heydecker (1972) opined that germi- nation is the basic requirement of seed and it is highly influenced by environmental condition prevailing during maturation and also by edaphic conditions prevailed at the site of production. He also stressed that seeds are remembered by its place of birth on expression of germination. The variation observed in the present study also might be due to the above reasons where the germinability varies with place of production that was decided by the environmental conditions of production place, the seed source. Bagchi and Kulkarni (1985) also identified the variation in viability of seed as an interactive effect of genotype and ecological factor in sandal. Similar variation was also reported by Parameswari, (1999) in Tamarind among the different agro-climatic sources of Tamilnadu.

Selection of seed source

Selection of seed source for collection of seed for plantation purpose depends on the performance of the seeds of a particular seed sources on all traits of selection based on seed and seed germination character. Even the resultant product is the seed and its quality components the visual selection based on the reproductive organ will be of much useful. The pod, seed and seed germination character evaluated at different seed sources in the present study summarized the order of preference based on the better performance as Table 3.

Table 3 Selection criteria for seed source identification based on seed and seedling quality characters

Materials and Methods

The present study was conducted to evaluate the variation in pods and seeds characteristics of Caesalpinia sappan. Fresh pods of Caesalpinia sappan collected from 15 different sources / locations of Tamilnadu and Kerala and the collection was made from February 2007 to May 2007. The study were conducted at the Forest College and Research Institute, Mettupalayam (11^o19’N; 76^o56’E; 300 MSL).Some of the characteristic features of the experimental sites are described in Table 4.

Table 4 Some of the characteristic features of the experimental sites

Pod characters:

Pod length (cm), pod breadth (cm), fresh weight ofpod^-1 (g), number of seeds pod^-1, and pod to seed percentage.

Seed characters:

Seed length (cm), seed breadth (cm), hundred seed weight (g), and germination (%).

Statistical Analysis:

The variations of pod and seed characters were analyzed by method described by Panse and Sukhatme (1978) and Chandel (1984). The values recorded in percentage were transformed into angular values prior to analysis wherever necessary. The critical difference (CD) was worked out at 5 per cent (P=0.05) level and wherever ‘F’ values as non significant it is denoted by ‘NS’.

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