Morphological characterization of three types of Asam gelugur (Garcinia atroviridis) at three altitude in North Sumatra

Abstract

Asam gelugur fruit has economic value. The government’s reforestation program empowers farmers through planting asam gelugur seeds at 3 altitudes, The problem is that not all of asam gelugur trees produce fruit. Characterization of morphology needs to be carried out to obtain basic data for selecting prospective mother trees as a source of seed supply that guarantees reforestation trees bear fruit. This study aims to characterize the morphology of asam gelugur based on classification of local wisdom of farmers of North Sumatra, namely classifying Asam gelugur based on the success or failure of the pollination process followed by the formation of fruit at 3 altitudes. This study was conducted in three altitudes: lowlands 1-<400 m above sea level (asl), medium (400- < 800 m asl and highlands (800- 1300 mdpl), exploration using survey method with IPGRI Descriptor guide and purposively sampling. The results found three types of asam gelugur in North Sumatra: Female, Male and Shemale (muzzy) at the three altitudes. There is no effect of altitude on the morphological characters of the three types of asam gelugur, except for the sharpness of the leaves color of the shoots.People namely Female asam gelugur tree, if pollination is successful and produces fruit. the tree routinely produces fruit. The name of a tree that has never been successfully pollinated and never bears fruit is called a male tree.The shemale tree is called a tree whose pollination occurs sometimes successfully. There were five striking differences in the characteristics of the three types asam gelugur based on local wisdom. The different characteristics were the Character shape (canopy), the petal’s color, the shape fruit, the Color of the young leaves, and the thickness of the leaves.