GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF THREE RATTAN (Calamus) SPECIES PLANTED UNDER PINE PLANTATIONS AT SINHARAJA BUFFERZONE

Abstract

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.