Survey of economic trees in fresh water swamp of Calabar

Abstract

A survey of economic trees namely Elaeis guineensis (oil-palm) and Colocasia esculenta (taro) in fresh water swamp, Calabar was conducted. The survey area located in the vicinity of Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH), Calabar premises covered an area of 0.5km x 0.2km was divided into five plots (A – E). Values of mean count and variance for Elaeis guineensis were 8.8/2.2; 6.0/2.0; 6.2/3.7; 6.0/2.0 and 6.6/2.3 for the plots respectively. Colocasia esculenta had mean count and variance of 127.2/74.7;194.4/180.8; 215.6/426.7; 158.0/69.5 and 169.8/19.2 respectively. The mean values were observed to be greater than respective variance except for plot C for Colocasia esculenta where the variance was greater than the mean. Mean densities (counts per m2) of 0.084 and 0.216 were recorded for Elaeis guineensis and Colocasia esculenta respectively. Pattern of distribution is regular but for Colocasia esculenta which had contiguous distribution in plot C. These distributions which did not obey Taylor’s power law of distribution show the different populations to be greatly affected by human activities.