Six years of fruit production by mahogany trees (Swietenia macrophylla King): patterns of variation and implications for sustainability

Although mahogany, the most commercially important timber tree in Neotropical forests, is widely acknowledged to be threatened by unsustainable logging which does not provide for its regeneration, its fruiting dynamics are poorly understood. During each of six successive years, the authors measured tree diameters and counted woody fruit capsule segments that fell below the crowns of 82 mahogany trees in natural forest in central Quintana Roo, Mexico. Sample trees ranged from