| Summary: | Merbou (I. bijuga (Colebr) O. Kuntze) is one of native species to Papua and Maluku with high potency and economic values. However; over exploitation of this species without successful reforestation has reduced its population. For recovering, it is important to explore genetic material of merbou. Afterward, the selected genetic material from selected plus trees should be used for improvement program. Hopefully an improved seed orchard could be established in the future through this breeding strategy and can be applied to optimize the land rehabilitation. The purposes of this research were to calculate the standard values for selecting plus tree candidates and to collect plus trees of merbou in some natural distributions at Papua and Maluku. The research was carried out using exploration method with ocular system, while all selected trees were composed as natural forest. The phenotype characters of each plus tree candidate were described and calculated as a quantitative score in order to evaluate the quality of trees.
The results showed that the minimum score for plus tree selection of merbou varied among locations, namely 50 (Nyonyifi), 53 (Rahmat), 55 (Mira), 77 (Marimoi), 68 (Lateo), 84 (Keerom), 60 (Manokwari) and 72 (Sorong). A total of 79 selected plus trees has been collected during exploration. There were 29 plus trees selected from Papua and comprised populations of Keerom (9 trees), Sorong (2 trees), and Manokwari (18 trees). The rest of 50plus trees have been selected from Maluku and comprised populations of Nyonyifi (6 trees),Rahmat (14 trees), Mira (l5 trees), Marimoi (2 trees) and Latea (17 trees). The characteristics of merbou plus trees in each natural distribution colrbe used in the future as a reference to evaluate the progeny test plantation of this species.
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