Performance of Pinus pinaster Ait. provenances in Central Spain

Abstract

This paper analyses the performance of 52 provenances of Pinus pinaster (44 Spanish, three french, two portuguese, two moroccan and one italian) planted in five sites in Central Spain. The design used is a randomized complete block design, with four blocks and 16 trees/plot. The traits measured and analysed at 18 years after planting were survival, total height, diameter, volume and frequency of polycyclysm. The heritabilities for all the traits were above 0.5. The site factor has a lower importance in polycyclysm and survival than in the other traits. The component due to the provenance-site interaction stresses the existence of a diferential performance among provenances. Pinus pinaster displays a high genetic variation among provenances in all the traits analysed. The Atlantic provenances have the highest height and diameter growth with a low degree of polycyclysm, but are poorly adapted to the sites with the longest dry period. Mountain provenances (AV1, SO1, CU), have a good performance in all the five sites, as well as two artificial provenances (CR and GR2). Several artificial populations widely used for afforestation purposes in Spain (SG3, LE) display a poor height growth, below the mean of all the provenances analysed.