Morphological characteristics of chestnut Castanea sativa from the area of Una-Sana Canton
Una-Sana Canton (USC) has a large forest areas where chestnut Castanea sativa Mill. grows as a self-sprout tree. The aim of this paper was to determine the morphological characteristics of chestnut fruits from four self-sprout locations (Bužim, Bosanska Krupa, Cazin and Velika Kladusa), and plantation where the domestic tree is grafted with Italian Marroni. Number of fruits/kg, the useless fruit, the percentage of kernel, diameter, width, height and weight of fruits were determined. The number of fruit/kg ranged from 160-222.5, percentage of useless fruit varied between 0.88-6.7%. Percentage of kernel ranged from 78.5 to 87.3%. According to the diameter classification, width, height and weight of fruits, chestnuts fruit from USC enters the category of the smallest fruits of the Mediterranean area. Statistical significant differences (p≤0.01) in the number of fruits/kg and weight of fruits was found between locations, as well in the width of the fruit (p≤0.05), while there is no difference in the diameter and height of the fruit. For grafted chestnut, all the characteristics provided better quality.
Does the persistence of sweet chestnut depend on cultural inputs? Regeneration, recruitment, and mortality in Quercus- and Castanea-dominated forests
Key messageQuercussecondary forests show a gradual transition toward mixed forests, with sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) becoming increasingly abundant in the western Spanish Central System. Additionally, in chestnut-dominated stands, it shows a certain resistance to competitive displacement byQuercus pyrenaica. Our results partially refute the traditional view thatC. sativais unable to recruit in the absence of cultural inputs.ContextSweet chestnut, Castanea sativa, is a component of European broadleaf forests and is one of the most managed trees. Due to a reduction in cultural inputs, chestnut-dominated stands tend to be invaded by other species, and it is unclear how chestnut is able to persist in natural mixed forests.AimsOur work aimed to identity the main factors that limit the establishment of C. sativa and to analyze the recruitment and mortality processes of C. sativa trees.MethodsThe age, growth ring patterns, regeneration density, and the spatial structure of trees and saplings in 11 plots in the Spanish Central System were analyzed.ResultsChestnut seedling density increased with C. sativa basal area, but transition toward the sapling stage appeared limited owing to light availability. In Quercus pyrenaica secondary forests, sparse canopies did not constrain chestnut regeneration, and in old chestnut stands, C. sativa showed a certain resistance to competitive displacement. By contrast, mixed young coppices showed a high mortality, most likely due to competition with other vigorous resprouters.ConclusionQuercus secondary forests showed a gradual transition toward mixed forests with sweet chestnut becoming increasingly more abundant. In old stands, C. sativa is likely to persist under a gap-phase mode of regeneration. Our results partially refute the traditional view that C. sativa is unable to recruit in the absence of cultural inputs.
Early Missionaries and the Ethnolinguistic Factor During the ‘Invention of Tribalism’ in Zimbabwe
There is evidence from across the disciplines that at least some of the contemporary regional names of African tribes, dialects and languages are fairly recent inventions in historical terms. This article offers some evidence from Zimbabwe to show that missionary linguistic politics were an important factor in this process. The South African linguist Clement Doke was brought in to resolve conflicts about the orthography of Shona. His Report on the Unification of the Shona Dialects (1931) shows how the language politics of the Christian denominations, which were also the factions within the umbrella organization the Southern Rhodesia Missionary Conference, contributed quite significantly to the creation and promotion of Zezuru, Karanga and Manyika as the main groupings of dialects in the central area which Doke later accommodated in a unified orthography of a unified language that was given the name Shona. While vocabulary from Ndau was to be incorporated, words from the Korekore group in the north were to be discouraged, and Kalanga in the West was allowed to be subsumed under Ndebele. Writing about sixty years later, Ranger focusses more closely on the Manyika and takes his discussion to the 1940s, but he also mentions that the Rhodesian Front government of the 1960s and 1970s deliberately incited tribalism between the Shona and the Ndebele, while at the same time magnifying the differences between the regional divisions of the Shona, which were, in turn, played against one another as constituent clans. It would appear then that, for the indigenous Africans, the price of Christianity, Western education and a new perception of language unity was the creation of regional ethnic identities that were at least potentially antagonistic and open to political manipulation. Through many decades of rather unnecessary intellectual justification, and as a result of the collective colonial experience through the churches, the schools and the workplaces, these imposed identities, and the myths and sentiments that are associated with them, have become fixed in the collective mind of Africa, and the modern nation states of the continent now seem to be stuck with them. Missionaries played a very significant role in creating this scenario because they were mainly responsible for fixing the ethnolinguistic maps of the African colonies during the early phase of European occupation. To a significant degree, these maps have remained intact and have continued to influence African research scholarship.