Title: Geographic variation in leaf, cone and seed morphology of Pinus greggii in navite forests
Abstract: Pinus greggii Engelm. occurs in two separate regions in Mexico. Northern populations grow in colder, drier climates than southern populations. Southern populations have been shown to grow faster than northern populations in genetic field trials. This study was conducted to determine whether trees from northern populations could be distinguished from southern populations using basic morphological characteristics. Leaf and cone specimens were collected from 177 individual trees of Pinus greggii from 12 native populations, representing a wide ranging sample from both of the two separate regions in Mexico. Twenty leaf, cone and seed characteristics were measured, and discriminant and multivariate analyses of variation performed on the data. Results of the discriminant analyses, using 17 traits, show that the southern populations are morphologically different from the northern populations, and that the southern populations have more variation. In multivariate analyses of variation, seven morphological traits were found to be useful in discriminating northern trees from southern trees: needle length, needle width, number of stomata, number of internal resin canals, seed wing width, seed weight and seed coat thickness. Needle length was the one single trait which distinguished the two groups of populations.
Publication Year: 1996
Publication Date: 1996-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 43
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