Clone Fertility and Genetic Diversity in a Black Pine Seed Orchard

Abstract

Clonal variation in the number of female and male strobili was studied for three consecutive years (2002-2004) in a clonal black pine seed orchard in Turkey. The data showed large differences in female and male fertility among clones in the three years. The correlation between female and male strobilus production was negative and statistically significant in 2004, a good-flowering year. Clonal fertility and fertility variation, expressed by the sibling coefficient and coefficient of variation in strobilus production among 30 clones, were reported. Fertility varied among clones and among years, producing three-year averages of 99.3 and 801.6 for female and male strobili per ramet, respectively. Male fertility variation was higher than was female fertility variation in the three years. The status number, a measure of genetic diversity, was calculated as 26.4 (2002), 23.9 (2003), and 24.0 (2004). On average, the relative status number, estimated based on total fertility, was 86% of the census number. Sexual asymmetry calculations showed that clonal contributions would be balanced between genders. Some management activities such as adjusting ramet number to balance clone contributions and mixing of seeds from consecutive years are suggested for the black pine seed orchard.