INTERNATIONAL PROVENANCE TRIALS OF PINUS KESIYA ¹

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A joint meeting of Working Parties S2.02–08 (Tropical species provenances), S2.03-01 (Breeding tropical species) and S2.03–13 (Breeding southern pines) of IUFRO, entitled Provenance and Genetic Improvement Strategies in Tropical Forest Trees, was held in Mutare, Zimbabwe, in April, 1984. At this meeting G. Gibson and R.D. Barnes reported on the status of the first international provenance trials of Pinus kesiya Royle ex Gordon; and made recommendations on a future strategy as regards the genetic development of this species. A special discussion was held among interested parties at the occasion of the meeting, and recommendations were made to start acquisition of seed for new international trials. The objective of these trials was to procure seed of those natural provenances and land races which were considered to have the best potential for further development. It was agreed that the Oxford Forestry Institute (OFI) and the DANIDA Forest Seed Centre (DFSC), in cooperation with the countries from which seed was to be procured, would coordinate a programme for the collection and distribution of the seed for these new trials.

In May, 1988, representatives of the OFI and DFSC met in Humlebaek to discuss strategies for storing, testing and distributing the seed and the following decisions were made:

1. All seed would be held at the DFSC, where it would be stored and tested, and whence it would eventually be distributed to participants.

2. All requests for seed were to be addressed to OFI, who would handle the trial records, monitoring and eventual evaluation of data in their database, OXFORGEN. Seed will have OFI identity numbers to facilitate this.

3. There will be four objectives in using this material:

   1. to study between-provenance variation in provenance trials, using bulked seed by provenance;
   2. to study within-provenance variation in progeny/provenance trials, using separate half-sib families;
   3. to establish conservation stands and provenance resource stands, using bulked seed by provenance;
   4. to create breeding populations in breeding seedling orchards, using family-identified or bulked seed.

Information on the seed collections is given in the accompanying table, which also shows the categories of planting for which each provenance is available.

Requests for seed should be sent to the OFI (see address above), stating clearly the type and composition of trial or planting required.

List of Pinus kesiya seed samples available for international provenance testing, establishment of breeding base and gene conservation.

* Pinus yunnanensis

¹ Manuscript received March 1989. See also preliminary announcement on these trials, published in FGRI No. 16 (1988).