Local species are growing in Guyana!

In June, the GEPOG association team visited the plant nurseries of Solicaz, a service provider for the Life BIODIV’OM project. In order to replace Acacia mangium in its current uses, the Solicaz company is carrying out production and planting tests of native Guyanese species.

GEPOG visits the Solicaz plant nursery © GEPOG

Custom-selected local species

Ten local species have been selected for this project which takes place in several phases:

• Identification of mother or seed trees,
• Seed harvest,
• Germination tests,
• Development tests on different substrates.

To date, different populations of seeds have been identified for 9 species out of the 10 identified. This work was carried out with the help of two botanists. The seed companies are regularly visited in order to monitor their phenological stage in order to be able to harvest the seeds. Seed collections were carried out for 7 out of the 10 species. In order to carry out the tests, it is necessary to collect more than a thousand seeds of each species !

Solicaz plant nursery © GEPOG

Technical challenges to face

If, for more than half of the species chosen, the tests are progressing very satisfactorily, for others, there are some difficulties. Most of the difficulties relate to the collection of seeds (localization of populations, observation of fruiting, etc.), as is the case for Mouriri guianensis or Varronia schomburgkii.

For some species, it is very difficult to store the seeds without them molding, so they must be sown quickly after harvest, without storage possible. For mombin, germination is extremely long, over six months!

The tests continue according to the protocol established at the start of the project with the objective of delivering by 2022, 450 plants per species as well as technical production routes for each of them.