Provenance variation in Pinus contorta.  L. A. Pederick and J. McI. McDonald.  February 1979.  13 pp. (unpubl.)

SUMMARY

Provenance trials of Pinus contorta were established at Narbethong and Mansfield during 1972 and 1973. The 24 provenances tested included: 10 from natural coastal populations in North America (P. contorta subsp. contorta), three from the northern high-altitude interior populations (P. contorta subsp. latifolia), 8 from the southern high-altitude interior populations (P. contorta subsp. murrayana) and 3 populations of unknown provenances.

Considerable variation in seedling height between the provenances was measured during the nursery stage. In general, the relative differences exhibited in the nursery were maintained after a further 5 years of growth in field plots.

The coastal provenances grew much faster than the interior provenances; other differences included greener foliage, denser crowns, narrower needles, and earlier cone production. Trunk straightness was not good. Some of the coastal provenances appeared to have better growth than the others but no clinal pattern of variation was found.

The northern, slow-growing inland provenances (subsp. latifolia) grew a little faster than the southern inland ones (subsp. murrayana), but growth was so slow as to have little commercial value.

The better P. contorta provenances grew more slowly than P. radiata under comparable conditions. For example, at one site adjacent to P. contorta and P. radiata were 3.7 m and 4.7 m tall, respectively.

Also published:

Pederick, L.A. (1980)  Provenance variation in Pinus contorta.  For. Comm. Vic., For. Tech Pap. 28: 32-40.