Abstract:
The performance of Adansonia digitata (Linn) seeds and seedlings in spent lubricating oil
contaminated soil was evaluated at Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan Oyo State, Nigeria with a
view to determine the level of spent lubricating oil that the plant can tolerate. The experimental
design used was Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four replications. The spent
lubricating oil levels were 0ml, 20ml, 40ml, 60ml, 80ml, 100ml 120ml, 140ml with 3kg of top
soil. The parameters assessed were germination percentage (%), plant height (cm) stem diameter
(mm) and leaf production and leaf area (cm2). Seedlings were watered once in a day. After
fifteen weeks of observation and data collection, it was observed that the seedlings in oil
contaminated soil gave different responses to the level of spent lubricating oil concentrations,
However, T2 (20ml of SLO + 3kg of top soil) gave the best performance in seedling height
(9.63cm), leaf production (5.15), while T5 (80ml of + 3kg of top soil) gave the best performance
in leaf area (26.78cm2). Furthermore, there was no significant difference among treatments in
seedling height (cm¬), leaf area (cm2) and leaf production at 5% level of probability but there
was significant difference among treatments in stem diameter (cm2) at 5% level of probability. It
was therefore recommended that Adansonia digitata should be adopted for reclamation of land
where the use of Spent Lubricating Oil is prominent to an extent. |
