Plant material
From the original 16 species that were planted, we selected four species as the focus for this work (Table 1), including Castanospermum australe A.Cunn. ex Mudie (Fabaceae), Homalanthus novo-guineensis (Warb.) Lauterb. & K.Schum. (Euphorbiaceae),Melicope elleryana (F.Muell.) T.G.Hartley (Rutaceae), andTerminalia microcarpa Decne. (Combretaceae). These species were selected because they are commonly used in regional restoration plantings, are widely distributed, and cover a range of early to late successional stages. Three of the species, C. australe , H. novo-guineensis, and M. elleryana , are evergreen trees, whilstT. microcarpa is considered deciduous with a period of leaflessness during the dry season (September or October) in mature trees. All four species naturally occur throughout the tropical and subtropical Australian and Indo-Malesian floristic regions.
Table 1 Provenance information for target species in this study. Climate data obtained from CHELSA V.2.1 1981-2010 at 1km resolution.