Study of seed orchard population in Acacia auriculiformis through seed image analysis technique

Acacia auriculiformis is a fast-growing, multipurpose native tree species of Australia and has been introduced to India. It is widely planted for timber, pulp and fuel wood. Seed orchards constitute an important component in most tree improvement programme and seeds from seed orchards are superior to stand seeds. The Institute of Forest Genetics & Tree Breeding (IFGTB), Coimbatore had initiated tree improvement programme on Acaia auriculiformis during 1995 with the collaboration of Australian Tree Seed Center, CSIRO, Australia. The Institute had established seedling seed orchards of first and second generation trials of Acacia auriculiformis in Southern States (Tamil Nadu and Kerala) of India. We had collected seeds from the first and second generation orchards populations for mating system study. Under this study a preliminary work was carried out for seed variability in orchards population. Therefore the present paper deals about the seed Image analyses of Acacia auriculiformis of first and second generation populations. The results of the present study exhibited consistent variation in seed area, length, breadth from the first and second generation seed populations. The seed image data indicated that genetically high quality of seed population were derived from the second generation orchard population.