Phenological Study of Dacryodes edulis(Local Pear) growing in Ihiala, Anambra State, South-East, Nigeria

Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how they are influenced by climate and habitat factors. The phenological patterns of most tropical fruit trees especially in the South-East, Nigeria are quite scanty. This study is aimed at determining the sequence in the seasonal appearance of phenophases in Dacryodes edulis (G.don), to obtain and document its phenological data and provide baseline information on its phenology, to evaluate the effects of seasons on the appearance of its phenophases; and to determine how stable or resilient the phenophases of the species has been in the face of changing climate. The study was conducted with perennial fruit tree species in Ihiala, Southeast, Nigeria, with a tropical climate. The timing of the beginning and ending of the following tree phenophases of the tree budding, leafing, flowering, fruiting and ripening were observed and recorded at 2 weekly basis for three years. The resulting 2-digit code from combining principal growth stages and the secondary growth stages were used to interpret the time-dependent phenophases. The results revealed that Flowering in D. edulis occurred more towards rainy season while ripening occurred more during rainy season. This suggests that seasons in the area influence the reproductive phenophases in D. edulis and hence, not likely to have a stable phenology. The phenological data and baseline information on D. edulis was equally revealed by the study. This will serve as a yardstick for measuring changes in phenology for the species in the future.