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Introduction Materials and methods Results and discussion Conclusions Acknowledgement References |
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Materials and Methods Entada pursaetha DC has been reported in India from Silhet (now Bangladesh), Manipur, Andamans, Nicobars and the Eastern and the Western Ghats in peninsular India2-4. Seeds of Entada were collected from Western Ghats (latitude 13°55' to 15°31'N, longitude. 74°9' to 75°10'E) about 55 km from the Arabian Sea, at an elevation of 700-800 meters above sea level. The region receives 450 cm or more annual rainfall, and during post monsoon period the wind speed is 8-10 m/s. Following mechanical cracking of the hard testa, the seeds were kept in a coarse cloth bag and floated in pond water for about 20 days before sowing at various places in the campus. Of the 7 seeds sown, one buried in soil close to a tree of Bauhinia purpurea (Caesalpinioideae, Leguminosae) has grown into a liana, spreading its canopy on a miniforest of semi-evergreen tropical trees, in an area roughly equivalent to 1.6 ha. Since its climbing parts are mostly hidden among the crowns of support trees, locating their interconnections and estimating the spread area of this liana required observations over a period of time, especially when the identity could be confirmed by examination of its flowers and fruit. Here we focus on some features of E. pursaetha (hereafter referred to as Entada) of value to liana biology.
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