Studies on floral phenology, fruit and seed maturation and harvest index based on fruit colour in Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre

Abstract

Pongamia pinnata is a leguminous tree having enormous potential of producing high seed oil that could be as a source of biofuel. The collection of pods with higher seed quality characters is much important for production of elite seedlings at nursery and hence studies related to seed maturation were initiated as matured seed is the basic character of quality seed. To evaluate the steps in obtaining quality seed from the tree, studies were initiated on floral phenology, fruit and seed maturation and on evaluation of fresh fruit colour variation on seed and seedling quality characters. The results revealed that in pungam, the flowers per inflorescence ranged from 28.4 to 44.0, and only 3-4 per cent of the flowers set as pods. But the seed set was obtained with 80 per cent of the pods. The studies on pod maturation revealed that seeds of pods attained physiological maturation at 26 weeks after anthesis and it was accompanied with the change in colour of pods from green to dark brown and the seed from greenish white to dark brown, where the seeds had potential for higher germination (98 per cent). Evaluation on harvest index based on fresh fruits colour (yellow, light brown and dark brown) revealed that the seeds of light brown fruits recorded the higher germination (96 per cent), and seedling quality characters suggesting the collection of light brown fruits for obtaining good quality seed for sowing. The colour of pods also coincided with the colour obtained with maturation of pod studied with tagged flowers.

Phenology of Flowering and Pod Maturity on Some Cocoa Clones (Theobroma cacao L)

“…Results of research in other commodity showed that there was variation of time Baskorowati et al, 2008). The same result of research was also presented by Srimathi et al (2013) in Pongamia pinnata.…”

Seed germination in <em>Ormosia macrocalyx</em>, an endangered tropical forest tree

“…In general terms, both fruit and seed must be mature: dryness is indicative of maturation and in this condition they respond favourably to germination (Srimathi et al 2013;Silva et al 2015); in the dehiscent fruits, this is followed by opening, which is an evolutionary characteristic that allows the dispersion of the seeds and occurs when these has dehydrated completely (McAtee et al 2013). In legumes, the process is accompanied by lignification of the fruit covers in order to avoid damaging the seeds with excess moisture and to allow them to maintain dormancy until environmental conditions are favorable (Smýkal et al 2014).…”

Drying and reduction in sensitivity to desiccation of seeds of Alibertia edulis: the influence of fruit ripening stage

“…Because fruits from many forest species change color when they ripen, changes in fruit color have been widely used as the indicator of seed maturity for the harvest of forest seeds (Srimathi et al 2013, Lopes et al 2014, Kaiser et al 2016. In addition to fruit color, other factors such as seed water content and ambient temperature during storage are essential to the maintenance of physiological viability and genetic conservation of plant species, and these factors are frequently the subject of ex situ conservation studies on forest seeds (Borges et al 2009).…”