Eucalypt Domestication and Breeding

Eucalypts are being brought into cultivation as wood-producing crops throughout the warmer parts of the world. This book explains how to get better seed from these expanding plantations. This can be achieved by making well-planned seed collections from natural forests, followed by field trials with repeated selection and cross-pollination. This can soon produce faster-growing, straighter trees. The emphasis is on making greater use of the immense richness of the genetic resources of the eucalypts, especially in the first generation or two of domestication "wild" eucalypts for wood production. The book covers those aspects of variation, selection and reproduction that are unique to eucalypts. Large gains in production and quality can be obtained relatively cheaply by choosing the best geographic seed sources (provenances). Once suitable base populations have been assembled, continued long-term genetic gain can be assured through well-planned recurrent selection and mating. K.G. Eldridge is the author of "An Annotated Bibliography of Genetic Variation in Eucalyptus Camaldulensis".