Preliminary Observations on Variability of Teak in India

Forest trees with wide geographic distribution develop inherent adaptations to factors of the environment at tbe site wbere tbey grow in order to survive in a given ecological nicbe. These adaptations which are the result of prevalent environment are controlled to a great extent by genetic potentialities. When a species is taken up for breeding work it is necessary to study these variations to draw up a strategy for improvement. As teak is a species with wide geographic distribution and is raised as plantations right from Kerala in the soutb to as far north as Uttar Pradesh, it wasdecided to make a preliminary study initially to be followed up later by a more detailed study of intra and interpopulation variations. The results of the preliminary studies are presented in this paper. As variations in seed biology was studied a little more in detail than otber characteristics, recommendations have been made on tbe pretreatment requirements of teak seeds collected from different seed sources and are presented in the form of a table. These recommendations are of practical importance for raising nursery seedlings.