The importance of seed reserve on performance and breeding of tamarind seedlings

•Substantial variability gives opportunities for selecting superior planting material.•Tamarind modify their traits to enhance survival and growth.•It can be invoked a weak relationship between seed reserve and biomass.•Most phenotypic variation may be related to life-history adaptations.•Changes in breeding programs because of seed reserve variation may less occur.

The differences in seed reserve are common within species which may affect seedling establishment and seedling evaluation based on trait variation. Phenotypic trait variation may occur as a result of plant adaptation or the fitness consequences of seed reserve. We investigated seed reserve variation of tamarind to enable generalization about seedlings' growth interaction. Three provenances from Cuba (Granma), Mali (Faragouaran) and Thailand were selected for this experiment. Seeds were sampled from three populations that differ in seed mass and three seed mass groups within populations which were arranged in a complete factorial experiment as nested design. The seedlings of different populations were grown in a greenhouse under recommended cultural practices in order to determine the above-mentioned relationships. Seedling traits differed significantly among populations, seedlings from Thailand had the greatest total seedling biomass, leaf mass and stem mass, but seedlings from Mali showed a faster ontogeny. Significant variations among seed mass groups within populations could also be detected. We therefore suggest that seed reserve may contribute to construction of trait variation but other mechanisms such as trade-off were observed between seedling traits to enhance their survival and growth based their seed mass. It can be invoked a weak relationship between seed mass and biomass and there is inherent diversity among populations that corresponded to the alternative life-history adaptations which gives opportunities for selecting high quality planting material.