Morphological variations on the basis of origins in Turkish red pine (Pinus brutia Ten.)

Abstract

Turkish red pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) is a tree specie with the widest distribution area among pine species in Turkey. In terms of wood production Turkish red pine has huge economic economic and ecological importance. Identification of ecological races and mass seedling production on the basis of ecological races are very important deal with the climate change. Production of quality seedlings is one of the important factors in the success of afforestation studies, especially in the improvement of unproductive areas. In this study, sapling length, sapling root collar diameter, number of lateral shoots, average length of the lateral shoots, terminal shoot length, stem height without shoots, number of terminal buds were measured in 1 + 0 year old seedlings obtained from 6 different origins and located in Antalya Forest Nursery. By obtained results, it was analyzed whether there were differences in terms of morphological features between the origins. Measurements were carried out on 100 saplings from 6 different origins with 3 replication, and in total 1800 saplings were measured. It was determined that the seedlings have statistically significant differences in terms of morphological characteristics depending on the origin. Obtained data showed that number of terminal buds and lateral shoot length can give significant results in quality classification in terms of morphological characteristics beside seedling height and root collar diameter.