Investigation on phenology of Ziziphus genus in Fars province

Abstract

Ziziphus genus, belongs to Rhamnaceae family wich contains several species and varieties, and is a most important drought and heat resistant plant and covers an area of about 450000 ha in Fars province. Phenological stages of the two main species: Ziziphus spina-christi and Z. nummularia, were studied. Three regions in Fars province including Khonj, Farrashband, and Mamassani were chosen and these habitats were visited at 2-3 week intervals annually from 2000 to 2007 and tree’s phenological events and characteristics were recorded. These characteristics included: the time of bud break, flowering, fruiting, ripening, and fruit and leaf shedding. Climatic and the vegetation composition data of the areas were also gathered and studied. The results showed that there are significant differences between the three regions in terms of the initiation of all phenological stages as well as between the two species in the three regions with regard to time of flowering, fruit ripening and tree shedding. However, the interaction of region and species was not significant. The results also indicated that growth patterns of the of Ziziphus species may alter with drought and heat variation in different seasons of the year and as the result, they usually have two distinctive growth and seed production seasons, annually. Z. spina-christi is an evergreen tree in its natural habitats, while Z. nummularia is a deciduous small tree. The flowering and seed production of this species happen two times annually as well. The result of this research helps the farmers to plan their utilization of the species such as grazing, fruit and leaf collection as well as bee keeping according to the phenological events and guarantee a sustainable yield production and utilization.

Keywords

• Ziziphus spina-christi
• Z. nummularia
• Phenology
• bud break
• fruit set
• leaf shed
• Fars province