Ecology and reproductive biology of eugenia discifera and garncinia imberti rare and endangered tree species of Western Ghats India

Abstract

Knowledge of the pollination biology and breeding systems is very important for understanding the life history of longlived tree species. In case of endangered species, the information may have implication for conservation practices. In the newlinepresent investigation on Eugenia discifera Gamble, an endangered tree species, belongs to the family Myrtaceae, the reproductive phenology, floral biology, pollination biology and breeding system has been studied during 2012 -2013. Based newlineon the observation, the lifespan of a single flower was about 1-2 days and to complete the whole process of fruit formation was 102-112 days.Inflorescence is terminal raceme or axillary, flowers are hermaphrodite (bisexual), zygomorphic, newlineepigynous and complete. Sepals and petals are four. Stamens are conspicuous and numerous, stigma simple, fruits are globoid with crowed by calyx lobes. Breeding experiments showed there is no apomixis. The lowest mean fruit set were newlineobserved with autogamy pollination (34.00±16.73%) and highest mean fruit set were observed with geitonogamy newlinepollination (48.00±21.68 %) respectively. However, there is no significant difference in the fruit set by geitonogamy and newlinexenogamy. The flowers are often visited by various pollinating insects. The most frequent visitors are butterfly, Apis sp, newlineAnomala sp, Altica cyanea (Weber) and they visit to collect food sources such as pollen and nectar for their survival in turn newlinehelps in pollination. The factors responsible for declining the population of Eugenia discifera were recorded newline