PROVENANCE TEST OF Pinus greggii Engelm. AT TWO LOCATIONS IN THE HIGH MIXTECA OF OAXACA, MÉXICO

Abstract

In June 1997 two provenance tests of Pinus greggii Engelm. were planted at two locations (Tlacotepec Plumas and Magdalena Zahuatlán) of the so-called “High Mixteca”, state of Oaxaca, México. Six provenances of the variety greggii (northeastern populations) and seven of the variety australis (from central México) were included at both test sites. After 2.5 years, overall survival was 96 %. Trees at Tlacotepec Plumas were higher as compared to those at Magdalena Zahuatlán in height (20.5 %), basal diameter (30.9 %), crown diameter (17.6 %) and number of growth cycles whorls (5.3 %). Except for the last variable, these growth traits allowed separation of two provenance groups: those from central-México with higher values and those from northeastern with smaller values, except for the population from Puerto San Juan that showed values statistically similar to those from the central-Mexico provenances at Tlacotepec Plumas. Among the provenances from central-México, in Tlacotepec Plumas El Madroño showed the highest growth and Laguna Atezca the lowest; however, at Magdalena Zahuatlán, the Comunidad Durango was the tallest and Tres Lagunas the lowest, showing large effect of genotype environment interaction. Among the northeastern provenances, Puerto San Juan had superior growth as compared to the rest of the those provenances in both plantations, as did Santa Anita in Magdalena Zahuatlán. The number of whorls showed significant differences among provenances at Tlacotepec Plumas but it did not show any genotype environment interaction.