Tree Health Assessment of Lauraceae Collections in Bogor Botanic Gardens using Forest Health Monitoring Method

Abstract

Bogor Botanic Gardens (BBG) is an ex-situ plant conservation area with thousands of plant collections. The trees of the Lauraceae in BBG experienced the highest number of deaths among other families. However most of them were categorized as young planting years (0-15 years). A tree health monitoring in the Lauraceae needs to be conducted to provide an overview, trend, and value of the level of damage. Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) method was carried out on two plots consisting of 149 trees. FHM can identify the types and levels of damage through monitoring and recording a series of tree damage. The results showed that among 149 trees, with 103 healthy, 9 lightly damaged, 10 moderately damaged, 15 heavily damaged, and 12 dead. The damage was primarily found in the stem (63 trees), the crown branch (51 trees), and the roots (13 trees). The severity of the damage was mainly at a mild level (0-19%). The cause of the damage is discussed. Further observations and frequent monitoring of the health of the Lauraceae need to be conducted by management to reduce the number of dead collections of the family. Keywords: botanic gardens, Forest Health Monitoring, lauraceae, tree health