Phenological and morphological studies on different Paulownia species growing at Peshawar
Phenological and morphological studies on different Paulownia species growing at Peshawar
Mohammad Arif Chaudhry
ABSTRACT
Observations made on the phenology of three-year-old plants of 5 Paulownia species namely P. australis, P. elongata, P. fortunei, P.tomentosa and P. forgesii indicated that flower bud production occurred in the month of August in the first four species . P. forgesii did not produced any flower buds. The blooming took place in first week of March before foliation. P. elongata flowered earliest of the species in the first followed by P. fortunei in the second, P. australis and P. tomentosa in the third week of March. The fruit setting commenced in the first and second weeks of April in P. australis, P. elongata, P. fortunei; and P. tomentosa. However, the fruit ripening period was found to vary in different species from the fourth week of August to first week of October. Leaf shedding was observed from the fourth week of December to the first week of January. Studies on flower morphology showed that the clayx hairy surface material was of ash grey color (easily removable) in P. fortunei while it was golden brown (sticky) in P. tomentosa, P. australis and P. elongata. The corolla color was white in P. elongata, dark purple in P. tomentosa, light purple in P. australis and mild off white in P. fortunei. The flower length was maximum (10.9 cm) in P. fortunei and minimum (7.9 cm) in P. tomentosa. The percentage of inflorescence bearing plants was 88 in P. elongata, 61 in P. fortunei 35.5 in P. tomentosa and 30.1 in P. australis. The number of flowers/ cyme varied from 2-5 in P. australis and P. elongata, and 3-5 in P. fortunei and P. tomentosa. Fresh fruit weight, fruit length, fruit breadth, seed weight/fruit and placental length were maximum in P. fortunei and minimum in P. tomentosa. The leaf size was largest (238.8 cm2) in P. fortunei and smallest (124.6 cm2) in P. forgesii.
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December 1993
Vol. 43, Iss. 4
