Genetic diversity among populations in black pine (Pinus Nigra Arnold. Subsp. Pallasiana (Lamb.) Holmboe) seed stands in Turkey

Abstract

Anatolian Black Pine (Pinus nigra Arnold. subsp. pallasiana (Lamb.) Holmboe) is one of the widespread and important forest tree species in Turkey. The stands of this species occupy roughly 4.2 million ha, which about 1.8 million ha of that are considered to be non productive forests. Anatolian Black Pine can be spread to the steppe regions in Anatolia. The semi-arid steppe regions are evaluated as potential afforestation areas. Actually, the seed demand for this species is mainly supplied from current 53 seed orchards and 79 seed stands. The objective of this study was to investigate the genetic variation in Anatolian Black Pine seed stands. The number of 12 morphological characters was measured and observed on juvenile seedling (root-collar diameter, percentage of germination and living, ratio of live to germination, hypocothyl length, cotyledon number, cotyledon length and width) and seedling (rootcollar diameter, epycotyl length, needle length and width) from 14 seed stands in Turkey. The obtained data was analyzed by ANOVA, Cluster and Duncan test. Cluster and ANOVA tests showed that there were significant differences within the Pinus nigra seed stands for the characters.