Flowering and Fruiting Phenology of Selected Indigenous Tree Species in Anferara Natural Forests, Southern Ethiopia

The Flowering and Fruiting Phenology of Selected Indigenous Tree Species were investigated in Anferara Natural Forests, for two years. Prior to Phenological study, by using key informant interview and focus group discussions the most important indigenous tree species were identified. Based on the preferences of the local communities, the following ten indigenous tree species included: A. gumifera, A. adolfi-friedericii, C. africana, C. macrostachyus, E. capensis, M. ferruginia, P. falcutus, P. ferruginia, S. spinosa and P. africana were selected for the phenological study. From each tree species selected from Anferara Natural forests, five mother trees were selected and a total of fifty mother trees were tagged for data collection. Based on the objective of this study, monthly the following parameters such as flowering time, fruiting time and seed collection time were recorded until the end of the study time. The findings of this study indicated that, the flowering and fruiting time of the examined tree species were concentrated with long dry season and rainy season of the study site. Based on the findings of this study, A. gumifera, C. africana, C. macrostachyus, P. falcutus and P. africana were flowered during main rainy season of the study site. However, the rest of indigenous tree species such as A. adolfi-friedericii, E. capensis, M. ferruginia, P. ferruginia and S. spinosa were flowered during long dry season of the study area. In terms of their fruiting time phenological study, the following tree species such as A. gumifera, A. adolfi-friedericii, C. africana, C. macrostachyus and S. spinosa were bearing fruit during main rainy season of the study site. However, the remaining investigated tree species were bearing fruit during dry season of the study site. Seed maturity and seed collection time of the studied tree species were more or less similar and after maturity time of their seeds, close supervision is very important to collect the matured and healthy se