Twenty five T. populnea (L) Sol. ex. Corr. plants (1.2 to 5m in height) cultivated in saline soils of ECe : 1.56 to 64.7 dS-1 were studied for various morphometric and fecundity parameters. The plants were generally monostemmic and stem size varied from 2.5 to 32.8 cm in diameter. The highest number of capsules produced by any plant studied was 2600. The number of capsules produced in autumn were on an average 1.57 times to that of the spring. The number of seeds per capsules varied from 6.0 ± 0.39 to 15.2 ± 0.62 and averaged to 11.85 ± 0.174 (8 – 18). Average seed mass per capsule ranged from 0.99 ± 0.053 to 2.31 ± 0.07 g. Mean individual seed mass was 135.99 ± 0.3719 mg ranging from 20 to 300 mg – a 15-fold variation. The seed mass distribution was leptokurtic and negatively skewed. The fecundity varied greatly from plant to plant (6 – 29822 seeds per plant). The trees of stem diameter size-class of 20-25 cm were more productive. Average Seed yield in mature trees was 1.25 ± 0.2169 kg and varied c 86.4%. There was a great degree of multi-colinearity among vegetative and reproductive parameters. Allometric relationships were developed between vegetative morphometric parameters of the plants and their fecundities. The best predictive equation of fecundity (SN, number of seeds per plant) with stem diameter (SD) was as follows: Loge SN = -2.79171 + 3.78597 Loge SD –1.2763 (Loge SD) 2 ± 0.7008 t = - 2.72 t = 7.18 t = - 4.93 p < 0.001 p < 0.001 p < 0.001 R 2 = 0.9104; Adj. R 2 = 0.9021; F = 111.78
Zahida N. Gohar, D. Khan, Rafiq Ahmad. (2012) PLANT SIZE-FECUNDITY RELATIONS IN THESPESIA POPULNEA (L.) SOL. EX. CORR. GROWING UNDER ARID–SALINE CONDITIONS IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN, , Volume 9, Issue 3.
