Morphogenetic investigation of geographic variations of hop hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia Scop.)

Hop hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifplia Scop.) is composed of eight species, one of which is in Mexico, one in Euroasia, three in eastern Asia and Japan and three in America and Canada. In Black Sea region in Turkey, Hop hornbeam distributes naturally in Artvin-Hatilla Valley, Erzurum-İspir, Trabzon-Meryemana, Sinop-Ayancık, Kastamonu-Cide-Şehdağı, Zonguldak-Alaplı, Bartın, and Düzce-Yığılca. Also, it exists naturally in Denizli-Acıpayam for Aegean region and Kahramanmaraş-Andırın, Adana-Saimbeyli, Göksun, Nevşehir-Ulukışla, Antalya-Gazipaşa, and Finike for Mediterranean Region. The aim of this study is to determine their morphological variations for Hop hornbeam seeds and seedlings characteristics from seven different populations are naturally occurring in Turkey. The seed size, width and diameter on the seeds, wing height and width were measured collected from the 20 trees for each population. In addition, after the seeds were planted in pots, seedling size, stem diameter, root diameter, bud size, root weights and side branch numbers were measured in seedlings of one years of age. As a result of the analysis of variance, the seed sizes were found to be largest in Adana population and the lowest in the İspir population. The lowest seedling size and diameter were obtained in the Finike population while the saplings were in the Kastamonu population with the highest sapling size and diameter. The number of branches is the largest in the Finike population, while the least branching is in the Akseki population. As a result, the seeds of the Hop hornbeam and the seedlings of one year showed significant differences between the populations.