Nodulation of Pterocarpus officinalis in the swamp forest of Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles)

Abstract

Nodulation of Pterocarpus officinalis appears to be widely distributed in the swamp forest of Guadeloupe even under conditions of permanent waterlogging. The large majority of the nodules were found above the water table and as such were located on large aerial buttresses or on root hairs which develop mainly in emerged soil. Further, large trees modify their environment by accumulating litter between the buttresses to the point of ensuring sufficient topographic elevation to keep a volume of soil regularly emerged. Consequently the nodules were concentrated in a small circle (5 m in diameter) around the oldest trees. A few nodules (5%) survived under the water table, provided that healthy root hairs were present, and this kept the rate of nodulation constant over a vertical gradient (0.9 nodule g⁻¹ root DW). The C₂H₄-evolution rate of P. officinalis, 2.6–5.9 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹, appeared to be quite low compared to that of the potted Gliricidia sepium cuttings (19.4 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹), but was considerably higher than that of the woody liana Dalbergia monetaria (1.0 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹) from the same swamp forest site as P. officinalis. It was concluded that P. officinalis is a N₂-fixing tree species under the waterlogged conditions of tropical swamp forests, and was hypothesised that the symbiotic nitrogen fixation on P. officinalis buttresses and root hairs could be considered as an additional adaptation to flooded soil and a contribution to its success in the tropical swamp forests of the Caribbean region.