i Parkia biglobosa - School of Forest Resources & Environmental ...

prolonged contact with water, chewing or ruminating by animals mechanically scarifying
the seed coat, contact with digestive juices, and fire can break the seed coat. To
propagate seedlings, the seed coat can be pretreated in various ways to encourage
germination. Soaking seeds in hot water, treating seeds for up to 15 minutes with
sulphuric, hydrochloric, or nitric acid, and mechanical scarification all produced good
germination rates, up to 80% (Hall et al 1997).
Seed Dispersal, Vegetative Propagation, and Nursery Seedlings
Seed dispersal is primarily accomplished through larger ruminants and primates.
Antelopes, cattle, sheep, and goats are attracted to the nutritious pulp and feed on the
pods. The seeds are then digested and dispersed. Baboons, monkeys, and chimpanzees
also feed on the fruit and act as agents of dispersal. The feeding by primates can be more
selective and seeds are often spat out rather than passed through the gut (Campbell-Platt
1980, Hopkins 1983).
Parkia biglobosa trees readily coppice after cutting. Shoots and root suckers arise
from a stump. Mature trees cut back to 50 cm above the ground, produce new shoots
after one week. P. biglobosa is often used as a fodder source; branches are cut and fed to
livestock. The tree’s coppicing ability can continually produce biomass with a cutting
interval of sixteen to twenty four weeks without reduction in leaf nutritional value. Roots
arising from stem cuttings are undependable and not a reliable means of vegetative
propagation (Hall et al 1997).
Focus on P. biglobosa as a desirable species for rehabilitating arid savanna lands
has produced interest in effective nursery seedling propagation. Awodola (1995) studied
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