Abstract
The brood- and seed –size and seed packaging cost have been investigated in Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit. From 300 pods belonging to three mother plants of L. leucocephala, a total of 5583 seeds were recovered. Of these seeds, 355 seeds were in waste class (4% in mother tree-A, and 7% in mother tree- B and C each). The largest class (51.0 ± 2.09%) of the seeds was that of the large seeds (> 40mg in weight. This class varied from 46 to 56% in the mother trees. The seeds lesser than 20mg in weight were 3.46 ± 0.33% of the total number of seeds. Pod based inter-tree similarity calculated according to Czekanowski (1913), on the basis of seed types, was not lesser than 91% and not more than 96%. The mean brood size for all pods from three mother plants (N = 300) averaged to 17.33 ± 0.203 varying from 6 to 25 (CV: 20.28%). Brood size distribution was negatively skewed and mesokurtic. The brood size in 90 healthy pods of Leucaena (pods with no waste seeds) varied around 19.80% and averaged to 18.37 ± 0.3869. The single seed weight averaged to 39.86 ± 0.188, 38.53 ± 0.197 and 39.17 ± 0.194 mg in three mother plants, respectively. The composite sample (N = 5228, excluding waste seeds) exhibited negatively-skewed and leptokurtic distribution with a mean seed weight of 39.21 ± 0.112mg (CV: 20.6%). The weight of seeds within pods varied with position of the seed in the pod. The first (proximal) seed of L. leucocephala pods averaged to 33.30 ± 0.0009mg and was lighter than the subsequent seeds (number II to 25) by a quantum of c 4 to 10.8mg. In the composite sample of ninety healthy pods, seed packaging costs, SPC1 = g.pericarp.g-1 seeds and SPC2 = g.pericarp.seed -1 averaged to 0.8265 ± 0.0366 and 0.0321 ± 0.0011g, respectively. SPC1 didn’t appear to follow normal distribution (positively skewed and highly leptokurtic, KS-z: 1.834, p < 0.002) where as SPC2 tended to be marginally away from the normalcy (KS-z: 1.258, p < 0.084). The results are discussed in view of available literature.
