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- Strychnos spinosa Lam. of the Loganiaceae family is associated with versatility, poverty eradication, and rural economic development. However, the morphological diversity of S. spinosa is not well documented. This limits efforts toward its improvement and commercial exploitation. This study aimed to characterize the variability, vegetative and reproductive traits, and heritability of S. spinosa morphotypes at Bonamanzi Game Reserve. The majority of the morphotypes had green, rough, round immature fruits with dark green, elongated, open fully developed leaves. Fruits varied between roundish and pyriform shape as well as green and purple colour. Positive correlation was mainly seen between fruit and seed traits. Principal component analysis indicated fruit and seed traits as major discriminating factors for morphotypes, followed by leaf size and seed thickness. A dendrogram primarily grouped morphotypes according to fruit texture. Genotypic variance and genotypic coefficient of variation were higher than environmental variance and environmental coefficient variation in reproductive traits of S. spinosa. A rough pericarp texture and purple tinge on the immature leaves of some morphotypes was recorded for the first time. Differences in morphological features across S. spinosa morphotypes indicate a high level of diversity that could be utilized by breeders to generate new cultivars. This first report on variability and heritability among S. spinosa morphotypes forms the basis of available germplasm essential for future breeding programs.
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- 2024| ElsevierThis study assessed diversity within Salacia kraussii, a fruit and medicinal wild plant species, based on phenotypic features and compared the fruit production in morphotypes that occur in the northern coast of KZN. The study revealed the presence of three morphotypes which differed in leaf shape. The morphotypes are here named as Salacia kraussii ‘Elliptic’, Salacia kraussii ‘Oblong ‘and Salacia kraussii ‘Obovate’based on the leaf shape. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) of plant quantitative features indicated that plant height, stem diameter, branch number, leaf number and area, and fruit number were significantly different between morphotypes and plants from different sites; with p-values˂ 0.01 and˂ 0.05 respectively. There was a strong correlation (CC= 0.8) between plant height and leaf number, branch number and leaf number and branch number and fruit number. Alternatively, a negative correlation (CC=-0.1) was recorded between the leaf area and stem diameter. Generally, in KZN, S. kraussii grows as a suffrutex which exhibited short plant height, small stem diameter, branches, and little foliage. The average fruit number recorded per plant stem was likewise few. Among the three morphotypes, plants with elliptic leaves dominated with 5 fruits per stem on average. Moreover, a few plants exhibited a strong vegetative vigor and produced more than 20 fruits. The ability of morphotypes to develop on sandy soil in arid conditions indicates that S. kraussii has potential to be cultivated as a fruit crop even in low precipitation-challenged regions.
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- 2022| Taylor & FrancisFruits contribute to carbon (C) fixation in fruit tree species of savannahwoodlands despite that the C fixed in fruits is rapidly turned back to carbondioxide (CO2) when the fruits decompose or are eaten. The aim of this studywas to determine biomass allocation between fruit components of Strychnosmadagascariensis and Strychnos spinosa and to derive the C stocks seque-strated by fruits. A total of 400 ripe fruits were harvested from trees distrib-uted in seven plots across the UMkhanyakude district. Fruit shell and pulpwere separated from seeds. Puree and juice of S. spinosa were separated bycentrifugation and steam extraction, respectively. Moisture contents of thefruit components were measured. For S. madagascariensis fruits, seeds con-tributed the most biomass (50.2%), followed by the shell (30.8%), and pulphad the least biomass (16.7%). The loss of material was 2.3%. For S. spinosa,the largest part of fruit biomass was in the shell (41.8%), followed by puree(25.6%), seeds (18.6%), juice (6.2%), and pulp (0.9%). The loss of material was6.9%. Fruit dry biomass (FDB; in g) and fruit carbon stocks (CB; in g) were bothrelated to fruit diameter (D; in cm) for S. madagascariensis (FDB = 1.022 ᵡD2.492; CB = 0.463 ᵡ D2.539) and S. spinosa (FDB = 1.015 ᵡ D2.38; CB = 0.198 ᵡD2.821). Proportion values and regression techniques were both valid meth-ods to derive biomass and carbon stocks of the fruit and its components.
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- Trichilia emetica is a coastal fruit tree species from sub-Saharan Africa that has a potential for commercial harvest for its edible and useful seed oils. However, the prediction of its fruit and seed yields is necessary to plan a profitable harvest. This study aims to calibrate allometric equations that predict the amount of fruits and the biomass of seeds of T. emetica. A total of 35 trees were selected based on seven classes of the diameter at breast height (DBH) in the Umkhanyakude district. The trees were measured during fruit maturation period. The measurements included the DBH, the canopy diameter, and the total height. Fruits were counted on each tree using randomized branch sampling technique. Twelve fruits were harvested per tree and were brought to the laboratory for the determination of biomass. Six allometric models were identified and fitted to the data using ordinary least squares method. The Akaike information criterion (AIC) was used to select the best-fit models. The results suggested that simple linear models, basing solely on DBH (in cm), were the best predictors of both the number of fruits on the trees (NF) and the fresh seed biomass (SB; in kg) of T. emetica. The exponential forms of the best-fit general models were: (1) NF = 375.364 × DBH 1.009; and (2) SB = 1.858 × DBH 1.009. The prediction tests of these models indicated that the errors were large when predicting the fruit number and the seed biomass of smaller trees (DBH ≤ 20 cm) and bigger trees (DBH ≥ 30 cm). For medium-size trees (20 cm < DBH < 30 cm), the error was small. On the other hand, tree size category models developed in this study improved statistically the accuracy of predictions. The findings recommend the use of the fitted tree size category equations.
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