Abstract:
Merbau [Intsiabijuga (Colebr.) O. Kuntzeis the most valuable timber tree found in natural forest of Papua and now encourage to be developed in industrial plantation scheme.The success of tree plantation development depends on seed knowledge and technology of the tree species. The study was carried out to study the seed germination biology of merbau. Samples taken from five sites located in lowland forest of Manokwari indicated that there was high variation of seed morphology of merbau in term of their physical forms and weights. Seed was categorized as non-endospermic seed which had ±170 µm impermeable layers. The seed germinated in 8 days and produced the first leaves in 16 days.