Vegetative propagation of rare tree species for forest restoration

When a tree species is rare and fruits infrequently, vegetative propagation may be the only way to build up planting stock for restoration projects. Anantika, one of our Environmental Science students decided to try using cuttings to propagate 9 rare tree species for her MSc thesis project. She discovered that successful propagation of rare tree species is problematic.

ABSTRACT: Nine rare tree species were selected for investigation of their suitability for propagation from cuttings: Crypteronia paniculata Bl. var. paniculata, Diospyros coaetanea Flet., Gardenia sootepensis Hutch., Haldina cordifolia (Roxb.) Rids., Ilex umbellulata (Wall.) Loesn., Mesua ferrea L., Rothmania sootepensis (Craib) Brem., Schoutenia glomerata King ssp. peregrine (Craib) Roekm. & Hart. and Scleropyrum pentandrum (Dennst.) Mabb. Five experiments tested the effects of various treatment combinations on rooting success; i) various types and concentrations of rooting hormones, ii) cutting from different node positions, iii) application of fungicide, iv) manipulation of leaf area of cuttings and v) varying the propagation media composition. None of these treatments were successful in producing viable planting stock in sufficient quantities, although limited success was achieved with Shoutenia glomerata. The best treatment was no hormone (control), which produced the highest relative performance score (86.1%). It required almost 10 months from collecting cuttings to potting of rooted cutting.