Reproductive Biology of Calamus Manan Miquel
Adopting a plant improvement programme that combines silviculture and genetic improvement could increase yields of Calamus manan plantations. The silviculture of C. manan is well studied but not on the aspects of genetic improvement. Information on reproductive biology, which is one of the basis...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
1999
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| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/9981/1/FH_1999_6_A.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/9981/ |
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| Summary: | Adopting a plant improvement programme that combines silviculture and
genetic improvement could increase yields of Calamus manan plantations. The
silviculture of C. manan is well studied but not on the aspects of genetic
improvement. Information on reproductive biology, which is one of the basis for
all genetic improvement programmes, is still lacking for C. manan. The objective
of this study was therefore to investigate the reproductive biology of C. manan.
The study was done in a rattan plantation located at Luasong. Tawau,
Sabah. The floral morphology of C. manan was common for species in genus
Calamus. Observations showed that C. manan flowered annually but with
different intensities. The inflorescence emergence normally occurred in October -
December and fruits matured 16-17 months after. No clear relationship was
detected between inflorescence emergence and meteorological parameters.
Anthesis in male plants (41 days) was found to be longer than in female plants (25
days). There were about 60,000 and 9,000 pollen grains in pre-anthesis and fallen
flowers, respectively. C. manan pollens could maintained half of its initial viability for four, eight and twelve weeks if desiccated and stored at 25°C, 4°C
and -18°C, respectively. Anthesis occurred at night, suggesting the important role
of nocturnal insects especially moths in pollination. Bees were proposed as
pollinators during the daytime. A controlled pollination experiment was
conducted to determine the best pollination bag and the differences between fresh
and stored pollens in effecting fertilization. The sex ratio in a planted population
was found to be male-biased but had a tendency to move towards unity as the age
of the stand increased. The fruit production capacity of C. manan increased as the
plants grew older.
The implications of the reproductive characteristics on plantation
establishment of C. manan are discussed. |
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