Heritability and Progeny and Provenance trail in Growth Traits of Elite Siamese Rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis Pierre) of the Royal Forest Department, Thailand

This study on the genetic inheritance of elite Siamese Rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis Pierre) was conducted in progeny and provenance trial plots at the Northeastern Forest Tree Seed Center (Khon Kaen).The 1.6-ha site comprised 200 trees (two trees per family) replicated 10 times across different plots.The experiment used a Randomized Complete Block Design, consisting of 100 families and 19 provenances, with two trees per plot and a planting spacing of 2 4 m.Tree growth and form were assessed annually to analyze differences among families and provenances.Differences among sources were evaluated using analysis of variance (ANOVA), and mean comparisons were performed with Duncan's New Multiple Range Test (DMRT) at the 0.05 significance level.The results showed highly significant differences (p < 0.001) in diameter at breast height (DBH), height, and volume per tree across the 100 families from 19 provenances.Heritability (h 2 ) estimates for DBH, height, volume, stem straight-height proportion, branch angle, branch size, and stem straightness were 0.44, 0.42, 0.34, 0.84, 0.67, 0.56, and 0.80, respectively.Most trials exhibited high heritability (h 2 > 0.40), except volume which showed a lower value (0.34), suggesting that favorable volume traits in plus trees were not consistently transmitted to the next generation.This aligns with the genetic theory emphasizing the combined influence of both genetic and environmental factors.These findings provide a useful database for future advanced breeding programs.