ABSTRACT
Department of Botany, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan (India), PIN-342 001. * Corresponding author: biotechunit@gmail.com
Wide divergence exists in how trees are treated as crops. Many trees and tree-like monocots grown for their fruits and oils are cultivated intensively and are also usually vegetatively propagated. These species comprise the horticultural and plantation crops of the world, including oil palm, datepalm, coconut, rubber, coffee, citrus, peach, apple, walnut, and many others. Goldschmidt (2013) has reviewed domestication and evolution of fruit tree productivity. In contrast, forest trees are considered to be self-renewing resources, attracting only modest management and research. Forests were often left to regenerate naturally, or are artifi cially regenerated by planting seedlings. In either instance, forests received minimum cultivation during their lives (Haissig et al. 1987). Most forest tree species retain appreciable genetic variation in their natural and domesticated populations, but there is only anecdotal evidence that tree populations can adapt or migrate rapidly enough to survive the current rate of environmental change. This raises two key questions: To what extent do trees have the evolutionary potential to adapt? And if they cannot adapt rapidly enough, what role can humans play in mitigating negative impacts of climate change on forests? Long term studies are required to address these issues as answers for many of these and many other key issues are not known.
