Vegetative propagation

1984

Award of the Marcus Wallenberg Prize to the research team at Aracruz working on vegetative propagation

The winners of the 1984 Marcus Wallenberg Prize were Dr Leopoldo Garcia Brandão, Ms Yara K Ikemori and Dr Edgard Campinhos Jr of Aracruz Florestal S A, Brazil. The Marcus Wallenberg Foundation published the proceedings and lectures given by the winners at the Symposium held during the awards ceremony in Falun, Sweden on 14 September 1984 with the title “The New Eucalypt Forest”.

The cover on the published proceedings featured the muchlauded single node cutting of E. urophylla x E. grandis hybrid (without roots) (above left) looking very much like the single node cutting of E. deglupta (with roots) I developed and was using at Keravat 17 years earlier (right)! This juxtaposition is interesting. Professor Bruce Zobel Emeritus Professor, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina USA was the external examiner for my thesis in 1972. The ANU under its rules allowed him to retain the bound copy submitted to him for examination. On page 159 of my thesis there is a diagram of a single node cutting with half of the leaves removed and looking just like this. Professor Zobel later was retained by Aracruz as a consultant for its tree breeding programme. He was also a member of the Selection Committee for the Marcus Wallenberg Prize at the time.