An Analysis of the Growth of Musanga Cecropioides

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Abstract
In a glass-house at Cambridge under conditions comparable to those in a West African rain-forest clearing, 9-month-old plants of the rapidly growing tree M. cecropioides gave an estimated mean unit leaf-rate (net assimilation rate) of 6 g/m2/week at a leaf-area index of 4.0 and 10 g/m /week at a leaf-area index of 1.0, while Helianthus annuus gave 43 g/m2/week. At the higher leaf-area index, the estimated annual production (including roots) of dry matter was 12 000 kg/ha/year, and the conversion of total incident radiation (0.3-3.0 [mu]) was 0.8%; at the lower leaf-area index the corresponding values were 5000 kg/ha/year and 0.35%. The rapid growth of Musanga does not lie in particularly efficient dry-weight production or energy conversion, but in its capacity for unrestricted internode elongation and leaf production, in its economical branching pattern, and in the continuously favorable humid tropical environment.