University of Tasmania, Australia

Acacia mangium and Acacia auriculiformis are the main forest species for short-rotation plantations in many southeast Asian countries and are native to Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. These species tend to be invasive in their new environments and one possible approach to reduce such weediness is the deployment of sterile triploid (3X) clones.

The aim of this project is to produce triploid progenies for studies. Induction of auto-tetraploid clones of A. mangium were undertaken and I am conducting a detailed study of crossability of individuals at different ploidy levels in order to find whether there are reproductive barriers to interploidy pollinations.