Geographic variations for cone and seed characteristics of oriental spruce (Picea orientalis L. Link.)

The aim of this study is to investigate the geographic variations of some cone and seed characteristics of oriental spruce (Picea orientalis L. Link). Fort this purpose, the cones were collected from 33 sampling plots within the species natural distribution in Artvin and Posof-Ardahan. Cone lenght and diameter, 1000-seed weight, seed lenght and diameter, height of seed wing and number of seeds in a cone were determined. Geographical features such as altitude, aspect, distance to the Black Sea, longitude and latitude of the sample plots were recorded. According to the analysis of variance, all variables included in the study were found to differ significantly between the sampling plots and were significantly related to aspects of the sampling locations. The negative correlations were defined between the altitude of sampling points and cone lenght and diameter. In addition to this, there were nagative correlations between the distance to the Black Sea and cone diameter, seed diameter and 1000-seed weight (p<0.05).