Within-species variation in the growth and nutrition of Eucalyptus cladocalyx

Abstract

The growth and nutrition of seedlings from three seed provenances of E. cladocalyx were investigated in water culture at several levels of substrate phosphorus and nitrogen.

The form growing on low-nitrogen soil tends to have seed with a higher nitrogen content than found in seed of the form growing on soil higher in nitrogen. This reserve of nutrients may be of advantage in establishment of seedlings on sites low in soil nitrogen in the field, but was of no obvious advantage in the present experiment.

The form from a site low in soil nitrogen produced, at all levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, seedlings of lower dry weight than that of the forms from sites with higher soil nitrogen. There was no difference between forms in the amount of total or orthophosphate phosphorus present in the tissue. There was a significantly increased amount of nitrogen in seedlings of the form growing on soil of higher nitrogen status.

Variation within the species is considered to be due to environmental differences present at the sites of occurrence of E. cladocalyx. Such differences include soil nitrogen level.