Tectona grandis. Linn.f

Family: Verbenaceae

Common Name : Teak

Telugu Name : Teku

General :

It is indigenous to India and grows naturally throughtout the Telangana region and the Nallamalai hills in Rayalaseema. Identified by the buttresses, light grayish brown bark and red stain when the leaf is crushed. It prefers deep well-drained loamy soils, but can come up on a variety of soils.

Flowering :

White flowers in large terminal trichotomous panicles in August to September.

Fruiting :

Fruits ripen from January onwards and fall gradually.

Morphology of the Fruit/Seed :

Fruit is enclosed in an enlarged calyx, endocarp bony, 4-celled with a central cavity. Calyx in the fruit is inflated like a bladder, 2 to 3 cms in diameter, ovoid, membranous, often reticulately nerved.

Seed Collection and Storage :

Fruits are collected off the clear ground under the trees or lightly beaten off the trees with sticks; each containing 1 to 3, rarely 4 seeds. Seeds can be stored in gunny bags for at least two years without loss of viability. Seeds stored for a year germinate better than fresh seeds.

Seed Biology :

No. of fruits per Kg.

Purity percentage

Moisture percentage

Germination percentage

Plant percent

No. of seedlings per Kg. of seed

1,850 to 3,100

100

7.8

10 to 15

20

650

Pretreatment:

Either boiling water treatment; or immersion in cold water for several days; or scorching in light fire of leaves and grass; or alternate soaking and drying for 48 hours each for 12 to 15 days; or acid treatment; or weathering; or placing the seeds in a paste of cowdung and water for few days.

Nursery Technique :

Pretreated seeds are put in big primary beds and beds watered copiously every day. Germination takes place in 10 to 20 days. During next rainy season, plants are uprooted and stumps are prepared which are planted in field in crow-bar holes.