Morphological characterization and seed production of Moringa oleifera Lam. mother tree in North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara

Abstract

Moringa oleifera Lam. is the Moringaceae family that is becoming popular in Indonesia as a food, medicine, and cosmetics source. Developing moringa plants in the community is difficult because there is no source of moringa seeds. However, the moringa mother tree from population selection has high productivity, known genetics, and is pests and diseases free. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and characterize the moringa plant population. The research has conducted in Selengan Village, North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara Province, in June 2021. The study aims to determine the selected mother tree, observe morphological characters, and calculate seed production per year. First, a survey method explored selected moringa mother trees. Then, observations of morphological characters were on quantitative and qualitative characters. Finally, potential seed production had carried out to estimate the seed production in population per year. The results showed that there have 38 mother trees that have high-yielding seed production. Furthermore, because the moringa population was from one seed source, the morphological population of the mother tree has the same characteristics. Therefore, the potential for moringa seed production was around 624,034 moringa seeds per year.