Variation in needle and cone characteristics and seed germination ability of Abies bornmuelleriana and Abies equi-trojani populations from Turkey

Abstract

IntroductionTaxonomic classification of the genus Abies in the Mediterranean Basin has been difficult to define due to various reasons, such as hybridization among certain species, wide geographical range, diverse ecological habitats, and great genetic variability within and/or among species (

Physical Properties of Seeds of Eleven Fir Species

“…According to many authors [2,13,33,37,[40][41][42], fir seeds differ in germination capacity that can range from 0 to approximately 90% in freshly harvested seeds. The above can be attributed to the fact fir seeds are characterized by a high proportion of empty seeds [2,13,20,37,43,44], which can reach 70% in some cases.…”

Taxonomic position of Abies equi-trojani on the basis of needlecharacters by comparison with different fir species

“…×borisii-regis (Mitsopoulos and Panetsos, 1987);A. cilicica, A. nordmanniana, and A. bornmuelleriana (Bagci and Babaç, 2003); and A. bornmuelleriana (Kurt et al, 2016). Mitsopoulos and Panetsos (1987) used needles from the seedlings of compared taxa growing in common garden conditions.…”

“…has been accepted in more recent works (Farjon and Rushforth, 1989;Farjon, 2010), but it has also been treated as an independent species (Schütt, 1991;Yaltırık, 1993;Velioğlu et al, 1998;Kaya et al, 2008;Debreczy and Rácz, 2011;Kurt et al, 2016). The nomenclatural discrepancies were a reason for several analyses of the morphological and anatomical characteristics, as well as the genetic diversity and differentiation of this taxon.…”

“…Within the latter set, cone length and diameter, cone scale shape, cone bract shape, and the level of insertion among the cone scales are recognized as essential to distinguish between species (Yaltırık, 1993;Bagci and Babaç, 2003;Farjon, 2010;Kurt et al, 2016). From the needle characteristics, the arrangement of needles on the branchlet, needle length, needle width, needle thickness, position of the resin canals, and form of the needle apex are utilized in the species descriptions and in the keys to distinguish between them (Chater, 1964;Coode and Cullen, 1965;Liu, 1971;Yaltırık, 1993;Christensen, 1997;Farjon, 2010).…”

“…×borisii-regis Mattf. (Mitsopoulos and Panetsos, 1987;Panetsos, 1992;Scaltsoyiannes et al, 1999;Bagci and Babaç, 2003;Liepelt et al, 2010;Kurt et al, 2016) using different morphological and genetic markers.…”