Tree Seedlings Sprout Hope for Breeder : Santa Paula: He believes the fast-growing hybrids in his nursery have the power to change farming and forestry across the United States.

With 200,000 baby trees in his Santa Paula nursery, Chris Lucas hopes to spark a revolution.

The veteran Australian tree breeder thinks the rows of fragile-looking seedlings he has imported from his native country have the power to change farming and forestry across the United States.

And on Friday, Lucas took a first step toward that sweeping goal: he selected 32 spindly shoots from his hothouse and trucked them to Thousand Oaks, where students at Meadows Elementary School planted them in the dry, cracked earth.

By the time the students return to school in the fall, the four-inch seedlings will top the tallest sixth-grader--and by Christmas, they should reach at least 12 feet.

Because of their incredibly fast growth rate, the genetically engineered hybrids--called sapphire dragons for their brilliant purple flowers--have been used in Asia and Australia as canopy trees, shading fields so vegetables can grow even in the blistering summer season.

At $10 to $20 a seedling, the hybrids, known as Paulownia fortuni , could also provide an economically viable alternative to clear-cutting virgin forests for timber. Sapphire dragons can be harvested for wood pulp after three years and for lumber after 10, Lucas said.

Lucas’ dreams of transforming the nation’s agriculture and timber industries from his Santa Paula nursery have sparked considerable curiosity--and skepticism.

Most local farmers use eucalyptus trees as windbreaks along the edges of their fields. So they don’t see much need for the sapphire dragons, which stay scrawny as they shoot toward the sky, filling out to a good-sized trunk only after several years. A 5-year-old tree can top 80 feet and reach almost 15 feet in diameter.

“I just can’t visualize it,” said Dave Clarke, manager of Boskovitch Farms.

As for shading their crops, local growers said they would not anticipate a lot of demand for out-of-season crops nurtured under a canopy of trees. When it gets too hot to grow lettuce in Ventura County, truckers and wholesalers shift their attention north.

“It could be something we’d look into,” grower Jaime Deardorff said somewhat dubiously. “But we wouldn’t want to put trees in the field because of our tractors and all.” Still, Lucas said he’s certain he can overcome these objections and introduce “forest farming” throughout the United States.

After sinking 10 years and $1.4 million into his research, Lucas has developed 64 varieties of the tree, which he said are suitable for any climate. He has also, he said, perfected a cloning procedure that keeps the seedlings disease-free so they will not introduce any dangerous new pests.

His Sapphire Dragon Corp., which has been frantically importing 50,000 plants a week for the past month, will be ready to start shipping seedlings by the first of August, he said.

Because fast-growing trees tend to produce weaker timber, Lucas believes his hybrids are best suited for furniture carving or veneers, rather than construction. The sapphire dragons also produce excellent pulp for paper mills, he said.

That usage intrigued some experts, including Glenn Lehar, who manages a reforestation program for the Simpson Timber Co. in Northern California’s redwood country.

“We’re always game for a new species,” he said. “Forestry is such a long-term proposition that it ties up property for many years. If you could have a tree that would turn around (and be ready to harvest) within a 10-year period, that might be a good alternative” to other pulp trees, such as eucalyptus and cottonwood, he added.

For all his enthusiasm, though, Lehar said he would have to test the hybrid carefully before becoming a sapphire dragon convert. “We’ve never had an import as good as what Mother Nature has provided for us,” he said.

Tom Randolph, deputy chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, was also skeptical, saying he has never heard of the sapphire dragon.

But even if the tree proves less useful for agriculture and timber harvesting, he said as long as it does not introduce new diseases to the United States, it could be beneficial. “Anything that has aesthetic value and provides shade is a good resource for saving energy because you can use it to shade a house or building and keep the temperature lower,” he said.

The same element of novelty that made forestry experts skeptical only heightened the excitement for the students at Meadowbrook Elementary. Thrilled to be planting the first sapphire dragons in the United States, a dozen students volunteered to take care of the seedlings over the summer.

“I actually want to come back to school in September,” fifth-grader Rebecca Goldman said excitedly, lugging a hose to the garden after planting a seedling. “Not for the work,” she quickly clarified, “but to see how much our trees have grown.”