AVAILABILITY OF CENTRAL AMERICAN PINES FOR EX SITU CONSERVATION STANDS, PROVENANCE RESOURCE STANDS, BREEDING POPULATIONS AND PROVENANCE TESTING

by

G.L. Gibson and R.D. Barnes
Commonwealth Forestry Institute
South Parks Road
Oxford

International provenance testing has been carried out with many tropical species during the last two decades and the CFI, Oxford, has been involved particularly with the Central American Pines. There has been a close liaison with FAO in this work and compliance with the recommendations of the Panel of Experts on Forest Gene Resources. In recent years FAO has provided financial support to the CFI to assist in seed collection and purchase of semi-bulk quantities of seed of Pinus caribaea Morelet, P. oocarpa Schiede and P. chiapensis (Mart.) Andresen for ex situ gene conservation work. Many of these collections and purchases have been of seed of provenances in Central America threatened with genetic depletion or even extinction.

At the June 1984 meeting in Mutare, Zimbabwe, of IUFRO WPs S2.02-08, S2.03-01 and S2.03-13, where the theme was “the rational use of materials and information from provenance trials in afforestation and tree breeding programmes”, it emerged from discussions that for many of the important tropical species, including P. caribaea and P. oocarpa, the trials have given clear indications that there is a number of provenances which have the potential to out-perform the sources in common use for plantations. However, while the replicated provenance trials are a good source of information, they offer limited material for breeding.

There is seed available now at the CFI of the following important species: Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis Barrett & Golfari, P. caribaea var. bahamensis Barrett & Golfari, P. oocarpa, P. chiapensis, P. pseudostrobus Lindl. and P. maximinoi H.E. Moore. The provenances for which seed is held are listed in Tables 1–3.

Although the amount available varies by provenance, there are considerable quantities of seed and it is felt to be important that the material should be sown and planted rather than lie unused in the seed store. It is intended that it should be distributed for use in four different categories:-

1. for ex situ conservation stands, abiding by the criteria laid down in the FAO/UNEP project on conservation of forest genetic resources (Anon., 1977) for establishing and managing these stands i.e. basically planting to conserve material and genetic composition;

2. for provenance resource stands in the sense of Nikles and Newton (1983) i.e. early and heavy selective thinning to promote good crown development and heavy crops of seed with genetically improved silvicultural characteristics;

3. for sub-populations in multiple population breeding programmes in the sense of Barnes et al. (1982) and Barnes (1984) i.e. establishing populations at very close spacing, with early heavy selective thinning to identify genetically superior seed-producing individuals and founder members for the next generation;

4. for research purposes, i.e. provenance/progeny tests, isozyme investigations etc.

This seed is available free to interested organizations in developing countries. It is distributed with the proviso that it be used in the manner prescribed for one of the four purposes specifically stated above and that data, samples and seed from the stands raised be made available for international assessment and distribution programmes coordinated by the CFI and FAO.

Requests for seed and further information should be sent to:

R.D. Barnes/G.L. Gibson
Commonwealth Forestry Institute
University of Oxford
South Parks Road
Oxford, OXI 3RB
United Kingdom

A copy of the correspondence should be sent to:

The Director
Forest Resources Division
FAO
Via delle Terme di Caracalla
Rome 00100
Italy

Guidelines for establishment will be distributed with the seed if requested.

REFERENCES

Anon. (1977). Report of the fourth session of the FAO panel of experts on forest gene resources. FAO:FGR/4/Rep. FAO, Rome. 75 pp.

Barnes, R.D., Burley, J., Gibson, G.L., and Garcia de Leon, J.P. (1982). Genotype-environment interactions in tropical pines and their effects on the structure of breeding populations. In: Proceedings of the IUFRO joint meeting of working parties on genetics about breeding strategies including multiclonal varieties. Lower Saxony Forest Research Institute, FRG, September 1982. 220–221.

Barnes, R.D. (1984). Genotype-environment interaction in the genetic improvement of fast-growing plantation trees. In: Proceedings of IUFRO conference on site productivity of fast growing plantations. Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, April 1984. 197–213.

Nikles, D.G., and Newton, R.S. (1983). Inventory and use of provenance resource stands of Pinus caribaea Mor. var. hondurensis Barr. and Golf. in Queensland. Silvicultura VIII No. 29: 122–125.

Table 1. PROVENANCE SEED LOTS OF PINUS CARIBAEA AVAILABLE FROM THE CFI, OXFORD

Table 2. PROVENANCE SEED LOTS OF PINUS OOCARPA AND PINUS PATULA SUBSP. TECUNUMANNII AVAILABLE FROM THE CFI, OXFORD

(For explanation of a,b,c.. etc., see Table 1)

* P. patula subsp. tecunumanii (Schwerdft.) Styles

Table 3. PROVENANCE SEED LOTS OF PINUS CHIAPENSIS, P. PSEUDOSTROBUS AND P. MAXIMINOI AVAILABLE FROM THE CFI, OXFORD

(For explanation of a,b,c, etc. see Table 1)

Manuscript received September 1984