Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

PHENOLOGY BEHAVIOUR AND REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF TECOMELLA UNDULATE

Praveen Kumar, K.S. Bangarwa and Vishal Johar

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted on naturally growing trees of Rohida at Balsamand, Hisar. Large bisexual flowers of red, orange and yellow colour started emerging out with starting of the spring season. The bud initiation started in last week of February and continued upto third week of May. The flowering pattern showed a low rate initially during February gradually increasing to peak during mid-March and April followed by cessation during end of April in some trees and decline in others. Flower development was divisible into five distinct stages. The average duration of flowering was 54.5 days. The flower bud took 15.5-19.5 days to come to bloom. Average time taken from stage I-II was 16.40 days while IV-V was 0.10 days. It was observed between 05.00 AM-01.00 PM with peak between 07.00-10.00 AM. There was almost invariably no pod setting from May ends onwards. It could be established that Rohida is strictly cross-fertilizing species. The considerable amount (5.55%) of fruit setting in open natural pollination and no fruit setting in selfing as well as negligible fruit setting (0.14%) on isolated tree has undoubtedly confirms the cross pollinated nature of Rohida. The large flower size and sufficient amount of nectar present in the flower also hinted towards the entomophilous nature. Maximum fruit setting took place from March to April.