Fast growing and nitrogen fixing forest trees species play an important role in rural areas, mainly in degraded lands, where they provide multiple purposes and facilities for intercropping with other crops. Albizia lebbeck is one of such species. This paper aimed at estimating the genetic variability for germination in a progeny test of this species. Seeds from 26 parent trees were collected in a site located at Campo Grande, MS. The germination tests were performed in the UCDB University under a randomised complete block design with five replications and 15 plants per plot. The broad sense heritability estimates were 0.43 and 0.79 at individual and parent tree mean levels, respectively, which denotes a moderate to high genetic control. Selection of the best 10 parents provided a genetic gain of 8.1%. This genetic resource can be used in a genetic improvement program for the species.
Albizia lebbeck; genetic variability; germination; heritability; selection
