Performance of 23 Leucaena spp. accessions under nursery conditions

Abstract

With the objective of characterizing the best-performance accessions under nursery conditions, a Leucaena spp.
collection, represented by 23 accessions of five species, was evaluated. For that purpose the following elements were
measured: seedling height, stem diameter and branch number, dry biomass of the aerial part, root length and dry matter,
which served as indicators of the optimum transplantation moment; the seedlings were planted in 26 x 14 cm black
polyethylene bags. These features were observed to have remarkable influence on plant development and when a main
component analysis was applied, they showed high variability (63,10%) in the first component. Relation was found
among plant height, number of leaf growths, dry biomass of the aerial part, dry root mass and root length, and for these
features the following accessions stood out: L. leucocephala cv. Cunningham, cv. Peru, CIAT-9119, CIAT-9438, CIAT-
751, CIAT-7988, CIAT-7384, CIAT-7929, CIAT-17480, cv. Ipil-pil, cv. CNIA-250; L. lanceolata CIAT-17255, CIAT-
17501 and L. diversifolia CIAT-17270. It is concluded that there was variability in the collection among the species and
among the accessions of each species, and that it is necessary to take into consideration the studied characteristics to
define the optimum transplantation moment.