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Allometric relationships and reforestation guidelines for Maclura tinctoria, an important multi-purpose timber tree of Latin America

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Abstract

As reforestation and restoration processes gain momentum across the world native tree species are being established for production, conservation and restoration purposes in agricultural landscapes. One such tree with promise is dinde [Maclura tinctoria (L.) D. Don ex Steud]; a multi-purpose, Neotropical tree species that is being widely introduced on to farms of the coffee axis region in the Latin American Andes. No formal studies have been made that examine its potential for reforestation. In this study we aim to measure and define the relationships between age, bole size (dbh), tree height, and crown size of planted dinde trees for the development of spacing guidelines at time of planting and for thinning. We also sought to identify whether tree growth is influenced by various measures of soil fertility. We studied these relationships on dinde trees planted at twelve farms in the central Andean foothills of Colombia. Our results are the first to show dinde has comparable growth to other native and exotic trees used for reforestation in Latin America. Strong relationships exist for tree age and diameter at breast height (DBH) with crown size and height. Based on these relationships we developed spacing and thinning guidelines for timber production in plantation and silvo-pastoral circumstances. Soils were generally fertile but varied between farms. Growth varied with soil primarily related to pH and calcium, and secondly to soil nitrogen and organic matter. Our results provide preliminary information for the forester and/or the farmer on expected growth and size relationships for given ages in relation to soil fertility for planted trees. As more trees are planted on a wider array of soils and providing a greater diversity of ages further studies are necessary for refining guidelines.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Tropical Resources Institute of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies for funding this work. We also owe special thanks to Timothy Gregoire and Henry Glick for help with regression analyses and to Liza Comita for sharing her references on Agroforestry. This work would have failed without the help of many partners in Colombia; especially the cooperation with Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (UTP) that generously provided equipment and provided access to drying ovens for bulk density measurements. We thank UTP’s GATA Research Group which provided us their field knowledge and experience; especially Dr. Juan Carlos Camargo. We thank Jessica Sánchez for helping with data collection and for preparing the soils for analysis. We also thank staff from CIPAV, especially Enrique Murgueitio and Zoraida Calle for knowledge and information based on their 30 + years of experience working with farmers in Colombia. Lastly, we thank José Alirio Bolivar for providing us the farmer contacts; and we thank the farmers who generously opened their doors to us and allowed access to their properties.

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  1. School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 360 Prospect St, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

    Irene Montes-Londoño, Florencia Montagnini & Mark S. Ashton

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  1. Irene Montes-Londoño
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Correspondence to Irene Montes-Londoño.

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Montes-Londoño, I., Montagnini, F. & Ashton, M.S. Allometric relationships and reforestation guidelines for Maclura tinctoria, an important multi-purpose timber tree of Latin America. New Forests 49, 249–263 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-017-9617-1

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