TITLE:
Morphological Diversity within Pterocarpus erinaceus Poir. (Fabaceae), an Overexploited Species in the Savannahs of Côte d’Ivoire
AUTHORS:
Koudougnon Alice Estère Goba, Léonie Clémence Kouonon, Kouamé Guillaume Koffi, Béket Sévérin Bony, Issoumaila Diomandé, Raoul Sylvère Sié
KEYWORDS:
Morphological Traits, Pterocarpus erinaceus, Rational Management, Varietal Selection
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.10 No.9,
September
29,
2019
ABSTRACT: Pterocarpus erinaceus is a
high socio-economic tree of African savannahs. It is overexploited due to
technological qualities of its wood, forage value and medicinal uses. The main
objective of this study is the assessment of the morphological variability
within this species in Cote d’Ivoire, in sight of rational management. Fourteen
morphological traits were used to appraise the variability within 144 trees in
production from six sites (Yalo, Moyenne Marahoué, Kahanso, Kouassi-Ndawa,
Ouarigué and Téguirdouo). The results indicate that the variability reaches
6.60 for the height of the fruit and 45.99 for the weight of the fruit. The
results reveal also that there are three morphological groups of P. erinaceus in Cote d’Ivoire. Of the
four traits that revealed a distinction among the three morphotypes, only the
width of leaves and the number of leaflets enabled their complete distinction. Trees of group 1 have long leaves
with a high number of leaflets and large fruits. Trees of group 2 have small
leaves with a reduced number of leaflets and large fruits. Then trees of group
3 have intermediate value of width of leaves and number of leaflet and small
fruits. The three morphological groups could be useful for varietal selection
of P. erinaceus in Cote d’Ivoire.