TECTONA 713 



The action of weeds in killing teak seedlings is probably not a matter 

 entirely of suppression. Seedlings are very apt to rot in damp situations 

 during the rainy season, and in moist weed-growth the mortality from this 

 cause is high. Drip from overhead trees is also the cause of high mortality 

 among seedlings, and possibly this may also be connected with rotting owing 

 to excessive dam23. 



.SiLVicuLTURAL CHARACTERS. The soil requirements of the teak have 

 already been described ; briefly stated, the tree is capable of thriving on 

 a variety of soils and geological formations, but requires good subsoil drainage. 

 Teak is a pronounced light -demander ; it will not tolerate suppression at any 

 period of its life, and requires complete overhead light as well as a fair amount 

 of side room for its proper development. Saplings are often found growing 

 under the light shade of bamboos, and even to some extent under other trees, 

 but the groAvth of such plants will generally be found to be slower than that 

 of plants with complete freedom overhead. Saj^lings gromng under bamboos 

 and endeavouring to make their way through them will often be found 

 to have their leading shoot damaged or killed, the bamboo acting as a ' whip ' ; 

 the leading shoot of the teak is very intolerant of any irritation of the kind. 



The teak produces a large deep root-system. At first a long thick taproot 

 is formed ; this may persist or may disappear, but in either case strong lateral 

 roots are produced. Teak planted in the Andamans in exposed places suffers 

 from the effects of wind, which causes a branchy growi-h ; it requires to be 

 planted in sheltered places, belts of forest being left as screens. 



Teak is sensitive to frost, seedhngs and coppice -shoots being particularly 

 liable to injury ; it resists frost better than some of its associates, however, 

 and has good power of recovery. In its natural habitat severe frosts seldom 

 occur, but the abnormal frost of 1905 did much damage in parts of the 

 Peninsula, poles being killed at the top or down to ground-level ; experiments 

 carried out for five years subsequently showed that trees badly damaged by 

 frost were capable, when coppiced, of producing vigorous stool-shoots. Teak 

 is also sensitive to drought. In the abnormal droughts which have occurred 

 from time to time in the Peninsula it has usually suffered more severely than 

 any other species, trees as weU as coppice-shoots being killed or hopelessly 

 injured in large quantities. 



Teak has greater power of resisting the effects of fire than the majority/ 

 of its associates. It is true that on steep hill-sides and on ground covered 

 with a dense growth of inflammable grass the damage done by fire to teak 

 trees in all stages is considerable, and it is not improbable that in such places 

 much of the hoUowness observable in the lower parts of the boles is attributable 

 to the effects of past fires. Looked at from a comjDarative standpoint, however, 

 it is equally certain that in burnt areas the survival of the teak as a species 

 is encouraged at the expense of its less fu^e -resistant competitors. The question 

 of the effect of fire and fire -protection on the natural reproduction of teak 

 is one quite apart from the effect of fire damage on the growing stock, and is 

 discussed below under ' natural reproduction '. Under certain conditions fire 

 may have a beneficial influence in effecting a natural cutting-back process in 

 the case of injured or weakly saphngs. Thus Mr. C. B. Smales ^ has recorded 

 ^ Notes on a Tour in Forests on the West Slopes of the Pegu Yoma, 1917. 



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