Attached
Presentstudy examined the growth performance in tenus of plant height, total lengths of
stems, diameter, clump formation and number of live leaves of three large diameter
Calamus species Calamus zeylanicus Becc., Calamus thwaitesii Becc., and Calamus
ovoideus Thw. ex Trim. planted under pine plantations in buffer zone of Sinharaja, Sri
Lanka Four sites of rattan plantations in different ages were selected with each site
con isting of five plots. Lengths of stems were estimated and stem diameter was
measuredwithout the sheath. Number of live leaves and stems in a clump was counted in
each plant. Estimation of height and diameter measurements of pine trees, identification
the number of undergrowth species and soil analysis was done to depict the site quality.
Datawas analysed using analysis of variance in MINIT AB statistical computer package.
Results indicate that C. zeylanicus has the best growth performance in terms of plant
height,total stem length and highest growth rate at maturity and has a lower growth rate
at young age. C ovoideus showed moderate growth performance in terms of length,
diameter, clump formation and number of leaves. Moreover a constant level of growth
performance showed by C. ovoideus. C. thwaitesii showed the best performance in terms
of clumpformation but least in terms of growth rate and plant height.
