Within the framework of the cooperative seed collection programme between the Office of Forests, Papua New Guinea and FAO's Forestry Department, a range of provenances have been collected over the past few years of humid tropical Acacia species. Seed of Acacia mangium from these collections, together with seed of this species collected by the Directorate-General of Forestry, Indonesia; and the CSIRO Division of Forest Research, Australia, is presently being distributed for international provenance trials by the Seed Centre of CSIRO in collaboration with FAO's Forestry Department (see page 15).
In addition to A. mangium, small amounts of seed of A. auriculiformis, A. aulacocarpa and A. crassicarpa have been collected by the Office of Forests in the Oriomo Plateau area of South West Papua New Guinea. Part of the seed collected will be used for the establishment of conservation cum seed production stands in Papua New Guinea, which will serve as a future source of genetic material.
The collection work is continuing, however, small quantities of seed from the original stands can already now be made available to developing countries for the establishment of species and provenance trials of limited scale.
Requests for such seed (for a maximum of one to two sites per country) should be addressed to: The Director, Office of Forests, P.O. Box 5055, Boroko, Papua New Guinea, and copied to the Director of FAO's Forest Resources Division (Via delle Terme di Caracalla, I-00100 Rome, Italy).
Each request should be accompanied by short information on earlier experiences with tropical Acacia species, climatic information on the proposed trial sites, and details on import and/or phytosanitary certificates needed. Please also make sure that the exact address of the receiving institute is shown clearly on the request, together with any possible other suggestions as to e.g. best routing for safe despatch.
The seedlots are valuable and seed is scarce; it is therefore essential that the seed received is treated with utmost care, and that the experiments are laid out in replicated, statistically sound designs, to give reliable information on relative performance and variation patterns in the species tested.
Basic information on the seedlots available is given below. Rainfall data from two nearby meteorological stations, Morehead and Daru, can be found in the article by Turnbull et al. (Table 1, p. 13). (See also Map 2, p. 11 for location of some of the collection sites).
(i) ACACIA AURICULIFORMIS
Bula provenance (Morehead) 1
Collection from 10 mother trees.
9°09'S, 141°20'E, 5 m a.s.l.
Silt clay loams, alluvial (subject to wet-season flooding).
Balamuk provenance (Morehead) 1
Collections from 17 mother trees.
8°54'S, 141°18'E, 18–20 m a.s.l.
Silt clay loams, alluvial, pH 4.5 – 5.5
Iokwa provenance (Morehead) 1
Seed collected from 10 mother trees.
8°41'S, 141°29'E, 35 m a.s.l.
Soils lateritic, pH 5 – 5.5
(ii) ACACIA AULACOCARPA
Iokwa provenance (Morehead) 1
Seed collected from 9 mother trees.
8°41'S, 141°29'E, 35 m a.s.l.
Soils lateritic, pH 5 – 5.5
Keru provenance (Morehead) 1
Seed collected from 6 mother trees.
8°32'S, 141°45'E, 40 m a.s.l.
Oriomo River provenance (East of Morehead) 2
Seed collected from 5 mother trees.
8°48' – 8°51'S; 143°09' – 143°10'E; 20 m a.s.l.
pH 4 – 4.5
(iii) ACACIA CRASSICARPA
Wemenever provenance (Morehead) 1
Collection from 21 mother trees.
8°41'S; 141°26'E, 30 m a.s.l.
Silt clay loam soil, pH 4.5 – 5.5
Mata provenance (Morehead) 1
Collection from 10 mother trees.
8°40'S, 141°45'E, 30 m a.s.l.
Silt clay loam soil, pH 4.5
Oriomo River provenance (East of Morehead) 2
Seed collected from 11 mother trees.
8°48' – 8°51'S; 143°09' – 143°10'E; 20 m a.s.l.
pH 4 – 4.5
Woroi/Wipim provenance (East of Morehead) 2
Seed collected from 15 mother trees.
8°48' – 8°50'S; 142°53' – 143°08'E; 20 m a.s.l.
pH 4.5.
1 Closest meteorological station: Morehead.
2 Closest meteorological station: Daru.
