Stump size and the number of coppice shoots for selected savanna tree species

Management of coppice dynamics of indigenous savanna trees could assist in increasing the regrowth rates or number of coppice shoots produced. This would be useful in natural resource management programmes to promote sustainable resource management. This study examined the influence of cutting height, stem size and surface area on the number of coppice shoots produced for twelve savanna species from a communal land in the Bushbuckndge lowveld. All species exhibited a strong coppicing ability following cutting The number of shoots per stump was most frequently related to cutting height, although this was not always the most significant predictor. There were clear differences between species with respect to the number of shoots per unit surface area, the highest being for Albizia harveyii and the least Piliostlgma thonningii The taller the potential height of a species, the fewer were the coppice shoots per stump surface area.