Abstract
Milicia excelsa (Iroko) is a valuable timber species occurring naturally in the humid forests of Africa. The high quality and great demand of wood obtained from M. excelsa has resulted in its overexploitation. Attempts at establishing large scale plantations to ensure sustained production have been hampered by the gall forming psyllid Phytolyma lata. In spite of the economic importance of P. lata little research has been conducted on the impact of the psyllid on the establishment of M. excelsa plantations. The effect of P. lata on growth, dry matter accumulation and allocation of M. excelsa seedlings is assessed in this study. Seedling growth in infested plots was significantly reduced. Plants infested had lower height, stem diameter and biomass growth. Mean yield losses of stem, branches, and leaves of infested plants were 68.9%, 48.3% and 64% respectively of matched uninfested plants. Infested plants also had smaller, fewer and highly chlorotic leaves. There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in yield, specific leaf area, leaf area ratio and leaf weight ratio of plants growing in the open screen house and open plot without screening (infested plots) even though irradiance incident in the open screen house was 70% of that in the open plot without screening. It is concluded that P. lata infestation has significant effect on growth and biomass accumulation in the early development of Iroko and that such information would improve integrated pest management (IPM) programme for P. lata. Secondly, biomass allocation of M. excelsa seedlings is not significantly different probably at irradiances greater than 70% ambient full sun.Keywords: Milicia excelsa, Phytolyma lata, seedling growth, pest infestation, biomass
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Infestation significantly reduced Milicia seedling growth.
- Taxon
- Milicia excelsa
Milicia excelsae1 - Interactor
- Phytolyma latae2pest
- Outcome
- Seedling growthe0
- Direction
- reducede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Seedling growth in infested plots was significantly reduced.”
e1“Milicia excelsa (Iroko)”
e2“gall forming psyllid Phytolyma lata”
Claim · model-written summary
Infested Milicia plants had lower height, stem diameter, and biomass growth.
- Taxon
- Milicia excelsaMilicia excelsae1
- Interactor
- Phytolyma latae2pest
- Outcome
- height, stem diameter and biomass growthe0
- Direction
- lowere0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Plants infested had lower height, stem diameter and biomass growth.”
e1“Milicia excelsa (Iroko)”
e2“gall forming psyllid Phytolyma lata”
Claim · model-written summary
Infested Milicia plants had stem yield losses of 68.9% relative to matched uninfested plants.
- Taxon
- Milicia excelsaMilicia excelsae1
- Interactor
- Phytolyma latae2pest
- Outcome
- yield losses of steme0
- Direction
- lossese0
- Value
- 68.9%e0
- Comparator
- matched uninfested plantse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Mean yield losses of stem, branches, and leaves of infested plants were 68.9%, 48.3% and 64% respectively of matched uninfested plants.”
e1“Milicia excelsa (Iroko)”
e2“gall forming psyllid Phytolyma lata”
Claim · model-written summary
Infested Milicia plants had branch yield losses of 48.3% relative to matched uninfested plants.
- Taxon
- Milicia excelsaMilicia excelsae1
- Interactor
- Phytolyma latae2pest
- Outcome
- yield losses of stem, branchese0
- Direction
- lossese0
- Value
- 48.3%e0
- Comparator
- matched uninfested plantse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Mean yield losses of stem, branches, and leaves of infested plants were 68.9%, 48.3% and 64% respectively of matched uninfested plants.”
e1“Milicia excelsa (Iroko)”
e2“gall forming psyllid Phytolyma lata”
Claim · model-written summary
Infested Milicia plants had leaf yield losses of 64% relative to matched uninfested plants.
- Taxon
- Milicia excelsaMilicia excelsae1
- Interactor
- Phytolyma latae2pest
- Outcome
- yield losses of stem, branches, and leavese0
- Direction
- lossese0
- Value
- 64%e0
- Comparator
- matched uninfested plantse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Mean yield losses of stem, branches, and leaves of infested plants were 68.9%, 48.3% and 64% respectively of matched uninfested plants.”
e1“Milicia excelsa (Iroko)”
e2“gall forming psyllid Phytolyma lata”
Claim · model-written summary
Infested Milicia plants had smaller, fewer, highly chlorotic leaves.
- Taxon
- Milicia excelsaMilicia excelsae1
- Organ / stage
- leavese0
- Interactor
- Phytolyma latae2pest
- Outcome
- smaller, fewer and highly chlorotic leavese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Infested plants also had smaller, fewer and highly chlorotic leaves.”
e1“Milicia excelsa (Iroko)”
e2“gall forming psyllid Phytolyma lata”
Claim · model-written summary
Yield, specific leaf area, leaf area ratio, and leaf weight ratio did not differ significantly between open screen house and open plot plants.
- Taxon
- Milicia excelsaMilicia excelsae1
- Interactor
- Phytolyma latae2pest
- Outcome
- yield, specific leaf area, leaf area ratio and leaf weight ratioe0
- Direction
- no significant differencese0
- Qualifier
- 70% of that in the open plot without screeninge0
- Comparator
- open plot without screeninge0
- Setting
- open screen housee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in yield, specific leaf area, leaf area ratio and leaf weight ratio of plants growing in the open screen house and open plot without screening (infested plots) even though irradiance incident in the open screen house was 70% of that in the open plot without screening.”
e1“Milicia excelsa (Iroko)”
e2“gall forming psyllid Phytolyma lata”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors infer biomass allocation did not differ significantly at irradiance greater than 70% of ambient full sun.
- Taxon
- M. excelsaMilicia excelsae0
- Outcome
- biomass allocatione0
- Direction
- not significantly differente0
- Qualifier
- probably at irradiances greater than 70% ambient full sune0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“biomass allocation of M. excelsa seedlings is not significantly different probably at irradiances greater than 70% ambient full sun.”