Industrial Crop: Hydrocarbon  Management: Standard  Regional Timber

A plant of the semi-arid to moist tropics and subtropics, where it occurs at elevations from 350 - 2,500 metres, reaching its best development at elevations between 1,200 - 1,800 metres[303 ]. It grows in areas where the mean annual rainfall can be as low as 600 - 800 mm, in other parts of its native range annual rainfall can exceed 2,500 mm[303 ]. It can tolerate a dry season of up to 5 months[303 ]. Plants are not tolerant of frost. Mature plants require a sunny position, though young plants can tolerate some shade[299 ]. Plants sometimes tolerate shallow soil[303 ]. Most often found in the wild on shallow, sandy clay soils of moderate soil acidity (pH 4.0 - 6.5) that are well drained[337 ]. Plants grow best on deep, well-drained soils and with good rainfall regimes[337 ]. Young seedling plants tend to become bushy shortly after field establishment and remain that way for several years before a dominant terminal leader develops[337 ]. Seedlings will resprout after heavy browsing by deer, and saplings will resprout from the base after either freezes or fires of low intensity[337 ]. Continued interest in P. Oocarpa as a plantation species declined in the early to mid-1980's because provenances of P. Tecunumanii and P. Caribaea var. Hondurensis were found that yielded larger volumes of wood[337 ]. The disadvantages of this species as a plantation crop include its slow initial growth on some sites, poor wind firmness, susceptibility to nutrient deficiencies and needle diseases, and a relatively light crown that permits a continuous weedy understory to develop, increasing the fire danger[337 ]. However, recent problems of stem breakage in P. Tecunumanii have once again stimulated interest in planting more of this plant[337 ]. Growers like its good wood quality, its ability to sprout from cut stumps, and the ease with which it vegetatively propagates[337 ]. An extremely variable species in its native environment because it has evolved under diverse climatic and edaphic patterns over its 3000-km geographic distribution[337 ]. In South-East Asia, plantation-grown trees often do not produce viable seed, due to unsynchronized production of male and female cones[303 ]. This species is a principal host for the dwarf mistletoe Arceuthobium aureum subsp. petersonii in Oaxaca and Chiapas, and is the sole host of A. hondurense in Honduras (Hawksworth and Wiens 1996).

Carbon Farming

• Industrial Crop: Hydrocarbon  Materials, chemicals and energy include bioplastics, rubber, biomass products gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, butane, propane, biogas. Plants are usually resprouting plants and saps.
• Management: Standard  Plants grow to their standard height. Harvest fruit, seeds, or other products. Non-Destructive management systems.
• Regional Timber  These crops have been domesticated and cultivated regionally but have not been adopted elsewhere and are typically not traded globally.