World Agroforestry Centre | agroforestree database 4.0

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This database provides detailed information on a total of 670 agroforestry tree species. It is intended to help field workers and researchers in selecting appropriate species for agroforestry systems and technologies.

For each species, the database includes information on identity, ecology and distribution, propagation and management, functional uses, pests and diseases and a bibliography.

This project has been funded by the British Department for International Development (DFID, the European Union and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

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Acacia aneura	Flowering is induced by rainfall in spring and late summer but not at other times of the year. To set viable seed, A. aneura requires both winter and summer rainfall; only late summer flowering results in seed production, whereas winter rain stimulates the quantity of fruit produced after summer flowering. Seeds do not set every year and take about 10 months to mature. Years with good critical flowering occur only about twice in a decade.
Acacia catechu	A. catechu is leafless for a time during the hot season. In northern India, leaves are shed about February, new leaves appearing towards the end of April or during May. The flowers appear at the same time as new leaves. Trees continue in flower until July or August. Pods develop rapidly, becoming full size by September or October and turning from green to reddish-green, and then brown; they begin to ripen by the end of November through to early January. Pods dehisce not long after ripening and commence falling in January, continuing to fall in the succeeding months. Some pods remain on the tree until the following October, by which time, however, the seed has become extremely damaged by insects. The wind- dispersed seeds germinate with the onset of rains.
Acacia senegal	A. senegal is presumably insect pollinated. Flowering starts from June to July in Sudan, December to January in South Africa, February to March in Pakistan, and August to December in India. Fruits ripen in January in Burkina Faso, July-September in Kenya, August in Pakistan, October in South Africa, and November-December in southern and central Niger. The wind shakes seeds from the dehiscent pods, and sheet wash and grazing animals may extend the seed dispersal range.
Afzelia africana	Flowering occurs at the end of the dry season (April-May in Guinea) and fruiting takes place from December to February. Wind and animals disperse the seeds.
Albizia lebbeck	A. lebbeck is hermaphroditic. In its natural habitat, flowering occurs from September to October; mature pods remain on the tree for long periods and are available May-July. In Sudan it flowers from March to May and fruits from May to August. Flowers are bisexual.
Albizia procera	During the dry season the tree becomes almost leafless for a short time. Depending on the location, pods can take 8 months to ripen, as in India, or tree could flower and fruit throughout the year. Seeds may be released from the mature dehiscent pods still attached to the tree or from wind-blown pods that later dehisce or decompose. In Australia, flowering occurs about March to May and the fruits mature from July to October. In Sudan, it flowers from March to April and fruits in May. Flowers are bisexual.
Albizia saman	A. saman is hermaphroditic.
Albizia zygia	A hermaphroditic species flowering in January, February, March, August, and September. Fruits ripen in January, February, March, April, November, and December. This tree hybridizes with A. gummifera.
Alnus acuminata	A. acuminata may begin flowering at 4-5 years from seed (3 to 4 years from field planting). Male and female flowers are in separate catkin shaped inflorescences on the same tree. Clusters of male catkins are long (10-12 cm) and hanging, opening in mid-winter to release wind-borne pollen. Female catkins are borne in erect clusters and are condensed into a lignified cone (1.2-2 cm) from which approximately 100 winged seeds emerge when the cone dries in late summer. Phenology is variable according to latitude. In its southernmost distribution in the Andes, and in southern New Zealand this Alder sheds its leaves toward the end of March-April and sprouts new ones in September-October. Flowering begins in June-July. Provenances from tropical latitudes (mountains of Ecuador to Costa Rica) may shed there leaves gradually so they are never bare.
Alnus japonica	The tree flowers and fruits from April to November in its natural habitat. Pollination and seed dispersal is by wind. Flowers are unisexual.
Alstonia congensis	A. congensis is a hermaphroditic tree with wind dispersed seeds.
Altingia excelsa	In Java, the species flowers and fruits throughout the year. The peak flowering is in April-May. The peak fruiting season (the best period for seed collection) is August -October. The morphology of the flower (the petals and sepals are absent and there are numerous stamens) indicates wind pollination. The seeds are sweetly scented and dispersed by ants and to a lesser extent by monkeys and birds that feed on the seeds.
Araucaria bidwillii	Araucarias generally begin to flower and fruit between the ages of 15 and 20 years. Male and female flowers are typically found on different parts of the same tree. Male flowers usually appear at the base of the crown in young trees and female flowers at the top. As the tree grows older, the male and female flowers move closer to each other. Bisexual flowers are also found. After pollination, the female flowers develop slowly; the cones mature in about 2 years. They disintegrate on the tree or fall to the ground and disintegrate. Seed quality varies annually; if sufficient pollen is available, seed quality is usually good. The seeds generally fall within the periphery of the crown. In Queensland it flowers from September to October and fruits occur in January to February. Seeds disperse as the fruits mature. Trees bear seeds in 1-2 year intervals.
Araucaria cunninghamii	Female flowering commences when it is about 12 years old while male flowering does not occur until it is 22-27 years. However in seed orchards of this species the age of production of male cones has been reduced to only 5 years and female cones from about 12 to 2-3 years using physiologically mature grafting material. The seed production is often unreliable and low; a time lapse of 8-10 years between good seed crops is common (Schmidt, 2000).
Ateleia herbert-smithii	This is the only known dioecious (with carpellate and staminate flowers restricted to different trees) and wind-pollinated member of the family Leguminosae. Males produce pollen in pulses, and the females are continuously receptive for several weeks. In its native range, it flowers in October- November, and its seeds are ready for collection the following March. Fruit production is prolific and bi-annual. Late onset of seeding (20-30 years) has been reported in Costa Rica. Although the male trees are heavily visited by pollen-collecting social bees, the tree is wind-pollinated and dispersed. The wind-dispersed fruits move up to several hundred meters into open pastures. The very small geographic distribution of this tree appears to be due to a combination of its dioecious behaviour, wind-pollination, wind-dispersal, and slow rate of reaching an age of abundant seed production.
Aucomea klaineana	In Oukomé trees, new leaves appear from September to December and are bright red for about a week. Trees start to flower when they are about 10 years old, but fruiting only begins after 15 years. Flowering starts in August and lasts for 1-2 months depending on weather conditions. Individual flowers last for a few days and are insect pollinated (bees and flies). Fruiting starts in September with fruits growing to full-size in about 40 days, but mature after about 80 days. Fruiting is annual, but large quantities of seeds are produced only every 2-3 years. A healthy, dominant mature tree can produce up to 20 000 seeds. Seeds are wind-dispersed up to 80 m from the parent tree.
Bombacopsis quinata	B. quinata is a monoecious species that is highly self-incompatible. It flowers at the beginning of the dry season. The stigmas of the flower protrude slightly from the anther, which appears to be an adaptation to avoid self-pollination. When the flower opens, the pistil is receptive and the pollen on the anthers is ready to be transported by pollinating agents, primarily bats (Glossophaga sorisina) and occasionally nocturnal moths. The bats are attracted to the flowers by the nectar located in nectar sacs in the ovary. Pollination occurs as the pollinators move among the trees to collect nectar. Capsule ripens after 3-4 months, releasing wind-dispersed seeds.
Brachylaena huillensis	B. huillensis is a dioecious plant. The male has 2-3 times as many capitula as the female in each branch of the inflorescence. The flowers are small, and dissection of newly opened flowers and buds just about to open reveals no nectar. Flowering coincides with the rainy seasons. In Kenya, B. huillensis flowers twice a year, between mid-April and the end of June and between mid-November and early January. The flowers develop slowly for the next 2-3 months until the next rainy season. Opening is delayed until the rains come, and should they fail, all the buds shrivel and the next season’s buds start to appear. Male flowers almost always open earlier than female one. Bees collect and feed on pollen, which is possibly the main attraction of these flowers. Other pollinators include small flies such as Aprostocetus spp., Eupelmus spp., Mesopolopus spp., Pteromalus spp. and Trupanea albicans. The period available for fertilization is brief, and the development and maturation of the fruit is very rapid. About 10-20% of the seeds are sound at dispersal.
Bucida buceras	Flowering occurs throughout the year in Puerto Rico and in Florida it takes place in spring. Flowers may be staminate or perfect. Fruits mature in about 3 months, are light, easily blown away by strong winds and float on water.
Chukrasia tabularis	C. tabularis is monoecious, flowers are unisexual. Flowering normally begins when the tree is 8-9 years and in some places there is a masting period every 2-3 years. It flowers and fruits annually; in Southeast Asia, the tree is leafless from December to March. Flowering starts in April and continues until June/July and the fruits ripen in January-March. The winged fruits are disseminated by wind.
Colophospermum mopane	It is often deciduous to an extent, being leafless for up to 5 months, although usually for less. Flowering begins at 5 years of age. The sticky seeds cling to the hooves of passing animals and are dispersed. They are also wind dispersed.
Colubrina arborescens	C. a arborescens blooms from spring to fall in Puerto Rico and throughout the year in Florida. In Hawaii, the principal fruiting season occurs from May through July, with a smaller harvest from November through January. Insect pollinates the flowers. Besides minor movement by gravity, wind, and water, the fruits pop open when dry to fling the seeds a short distance.
Cordia alliodora	Flowering starts 5-10 years after planting but occasionally when trees are 2 years old. Time of flowering and maturation of the fruit varies with locality. C. alliodora is reported to flower at any season in the equitorial climate of Colombia, while it is more synchronized in Central America. Flowers are heterostylous, and a strong incompatibility mechanism (sporophytic diallelic 1-locus) is evident, with a low level of failure. Pollination is predominantly entomophilous, with the small, unspecialized flowers attracting a wide variety of insect pollinators, especially Lepidoptera. The mature fruit is shed with the withered flower still attached, which acts as a parachute when the fruit falls, and possibly assists wind dispersal.
Dalbergia sissoo	At 9 months, D. sissoo starts producing flowers profusely. The small bisexual flowers are borne on small branches from the leaf axis. Little is known of pollination biology and breeding system. The species appears to be insect pollinated, and trees can apparently be both self- and out-crossing to varying degrees, depending on local conditions. Flowering closely follows leaf flushing; leaves fall and young flower buds appear with new leaves followed by complete pod formation and maturity. Mature pods remain attached to the tree for 7-8 months and are then dispersed by wind and water.
Dodonaea angustifolia	The tree is hermaphroditic. Seeds are wind dispersed.
Eucalyptus globulus ssp. globulus	It is evergreen, with 10-28 months for floral development; 1 triangular pollen grain with 3 apertures and 2 nuclei per grain; diaspores are wind dispersed; a hermaphroditic, dichogamous, self-incompatible, polyploid species.
Eucalyptus robusta	Under optimal conditions, E. robusta begins flowering by the end of its 3rd growing season. More commonly, trees begin flowering when they are 5 years old. The flowers are insect pollinated. In Australia, flowering occurs from May to July, while in more tropical areas, such as Hawaii and Puerto Rico, flowers may appear at almost any time of the year. Flowering is protandrous, and the fruits mature 5-7 months after flowering. Seed dispersal is largely by wind and may begin within 6 weeks after the capsule ripens.
Hopea odorata	Hopea flowers and fruits almost regularly every two years. It is pollinated by thrips (Thysanoptera). The period between anthesis and maturity of the fruit is about three months. The small white and fragrant flowers appear between February and April and the fruits ripen at the beginning of the rainy season in May and June. The fruits are dispersed by wind and seeds germinate readily on falling to the ground.
Jacaranda mimosifolia	In Puerto Rico, flowering is from early spring to June, the fruit maturing in spring and early summer. In northern India, the tree flowers from March to April. Ninety-nine per cent of flowers open in the early hours of the morning between 5 and 7 a.m. The tree seeds annually beginning at 8-10 years old.
Khaya ivorensis	K. ivorensis produces a new crown of leaves usually between September and November, but the fresh leaves may begin to appear before the old ones fall. The flowering season is July to January, with most of the trees being in flower between September and December. The small white flowers are hermaphroditic. Fruits develop quickly and are conspicuous, as they stick up from the crown of the tree. They open and ripen from February to May. The seeds are wind distributed but do not travel far from the mother tree. The empty capsule may remain on the tree for several months.
Khaya nyasica	The flower is small, white and sweet scented. A many-flowered raceme or panicle develops at the end of the dry season or at the beginning of the rainy season, mainly during November. The flowers are known to be insect pollinated. In South Africa, the fruits from the previous year’s flowers ripen between March and July and even later. Seeds are winged and spiral on the air for some distance away from the mother tree.
Khaya senegalensis	K. senegalensis is insect pollinated. Flowering shortly before or early in the rainy season, the fruit apparently remaining on the tree throughout the dry season. When the fruit ripens, the colour changes from grey to black. Begins to bear seed when the tree is 20-25 years old. Seed may be dispersed up to 100 m by prevailing winds.
Lovoa swynnertonii	The winged seeds are wind dispersed.
Myroxylon balsamum	Seeds are wind dispersed and may be collected from the tree as they begin to mature. Balsam trees flower from July-September and set seed in October and November in Brazil.
Pausinystalia johimbe	The seeds are wind dispersed and their lightness and winged structure means that they can travel long distances, even in the mildest of breezes. The reproductive system is entomophilous.
Populus deltoides	P. deltoides is dioecious with sex ratio of 1 to 1. Male buds develop somewhat earlier than female buds and are much larger. Flowering occurs before leaves appear.Trees as young as 4 to 5 years old have flowered. Male flowers are 8 to 13 cm long, have 40 to 60 reddish stamens and are more conspicuous than the female flowers. Female flowers elongate to 15 to 30 cm. Flowering varies by as much as a month among trees in a stand. As a result, early-flowering trees do not have the opportunity to cross with late-flowering trees. In India, anthesis occurs usually in the 1st week of April, and seed is ripe by early June. In the lower Mississippi Valley of the USA, seed ripening and dispersal take place from mid-May through late August, while in northeastern USA it occurs slightly later. P. deltoides produces large seed crops nearly every year. When shed, the small seed has a small tuft of hair attached to its base that helps in wind dispersal.
Schima wallichii	Trees may flower and fruit after 4 years. Flowering and fruiting occur throughout the year, but flowers are usually more abundant around the periods when seasons change. In India trees bear flowers in April-June, and the 1st fruits are observed from May to July. The seeds are shed in next January to March of the following year. In Indonesia, fruiting is reported to be most abundant in August to November. Seeds are light and are dispersed by wind.
Schinus terebinthifolius	Schinus terebinthifolius is dioecious, has high ecological plasticity, short life cycle and very rapid growth. First seed production may occur at 3 years. The flowers are insect pollinated and seed production is high. Flowering occurs in September to early November. Fruit ripening follows immediately between December and February. Seed dispersal is by animals, particularly birds and mammals including raccoons and possums which account for a major component of dispersal in the USA. Water and gravity are minor dispersal agents.
Shorea javanica	S. javanica is a hermaphroditic, self-incompatible species. Pollen vectors in its natural habitat are insects from the family Thysanoptera. Flowering and fruiting intervals are irregular, possibly every 3-5 years; flowering is gregarious and correlated with a previous drought period. There is a decrease in resin production when the tree is flowering and fruiting, with the tree only gradually reaching its maximum production again 1 year later. Major fruit dispersal agents include wind and water.
Shorea robusta	S. robusta is a hermaphroditic, self-incompatible species. Pollen vectors in its natural habitat are insects from the family Thysanoptera. Heavy flowering of the tropical timber genus Shorea has is usually correlated with the previous drought period. Beginning at about age 15, S. robusta bears fruit regularly every 2 years or so, and a good seed-bearing year can be expected every 3-5 years. Major seed dispersal agents include wind and water.
Spathodea campanulata	Large, orange to scarlet, funnel-shaped hermaphrodite flowers are produced from rust-coloured, hairy buds in the bunches at the ends of branches. The flowers open from the outside of the bunch towards the centre. S. campanulata may begin flowering as young as 3 or 4 years of age, with open grown trees flowering when they are about 5 m tall; in some tough environments, flowering is delayed until the trees are much larger. Flowering stretches over a 5 or 6 month period, and the pods mature and begin releasing their seeds about 5 months after flowering. The tree reproduces aggressively, so it is frequently a nuisance in pastures and fields with perennial crops. The winged seeds are wind dispersed.
Swietenia macrophylla	Flowering mahogany trees have male and female flowers (about 10 times as many male as female flowers, often only the central flower of a cyme is female), but the flowers of both sexes are similar. Trees are sometimes functionally dioecious. In mixed inflorescences, male flowers open 1st, but self-pollination may occur. Flowering and fruiting are distinctly seasonal. Fruit may be produced once a year, and trees start to produce fruit regularly when about 15 years old. Seeds have a thin, taillike wing that makes them rotate when they fall; they are thus dispersed by wind as far as 500 m from the parent tree.
Tamarix aphylla	The leaves and branchlets are shed during the cold season, the new shoots and leaves appear about May. The species is monoecious and the small pinkish flowers appear from May to July, and capsules ripen in the cold season. In some parts of India, the seeds ripen in the middle of July to middle November. Ripe capsules turn brown, gradually open up and the seed is blown away.
Tectona grandis	T. grandis is 96-100% self-incompatible. The species is hermaphroditic and pollinated by insects such as black ants, horse flies, and particularly by bees. Fruits mature about 4 months after fertilization. Premature shedding of fruit is a problem. Up to 60% fruit set has been reported following cross-pollination of teak. The individual flower has a 1-day cycle; optimum pollination period is between 1130 h and 1300 h. The height of the tree at the moment of first flowering is important in silviculture. When it is long (it may reach up to 10 m), the final bole form is positively affected, but early-flowering trees may develop extremely wide crowns and short boles. This characteristic is clearly undesirable in timber-crop species and warrants strong selection against flowering in conjunction with increased effort to develop commercial methods of vegetative propagation. The time of the 1st inflorescence is determined by both genetic and environmental factors. In Thailand, flowering normally starts at the age of 8 to 10 years. However, trees have been observed to flower at the age of 3 months, while a few specimens of superior phenotype did not flower until the age of 27 years. Flowers usually appear during the rainy season, and trees tend to flower synchronously. In Thailand, flowering occurs in June-September and fruiting in November-January. In Java, trees flower every year at the beginning of the rainy season (October-November) and only a few flowers (about 1%) develop into fruits. Fruits fall gradually during the dry season. Although natural fruit set in Thailand is low (0.5-5%), 6 to 60% of fruit set can be achieved by artificial pollination. Fruits develop to full size about 50 days after pollination. They are dispersed by wind over 10-15 m and also by running water after heavy rainfall.
Tithonia diversifolia	The plant flowers and produces seeds throughout the year. The light-weight seeds can easily be dispersed by wind, water and animals.
Toona ciliata	In areas with a marked dry season all the foliage is shed for a part of the year. The flowers are functionally unisexual but usually with well-formed vestiges of the opposite sex present. In female flowers, the anthers do not open and are shrivelled; in male flowers the ovary has vestigial ovules. T. ciliata is reported to bear ripe fruit throughout the year. The seeds are released from the capsules at intervals. Seeds are light and wind dispersed.
Wrightia tinctoria	Leaf shedding is in winter and new leaves appear in spring. In India, the flowering occurs from April to June while peak fruiting is in August. Seeds are wind-dispersed.