Effect of Seed Source on Physical Properties of Scots Pine (a Case Study in Neka, Iran)

This study investigated the seed source effect on the physical properties of exotic Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). For this purpose, nine clear pine trees grown from the Spanish, Armenian and Serbian (part of former Yugoslavia) seed sources were selected from the Vanamak-Neka (eastern part of Mazandaran province) and a disc was cut from each tree at breast height. Testing samples were prepared based on the ISO standard to estimate the oven-dry density, basic density, volumetric shrinkage and volumetric swelling. Then, the results were studied by using the variance analysis test (ANOVA) and Duncan’s table. The results indicated that the effect of seed sources on the above mentioned properties were significant. All of the physical properties of Scots pine grown from the Spanish seed source were higher. There were no significant differences between the Armenian and Serbian seeds in the density and dimensional changes of the wood (volumetric swelling and volumetric shrinkage). The relationships between different wood properties were analyzed by applying the linear regression. There was a weak and negative relationship between oven-dry and basic density and longitudinal and diametrical growth of the trees. The correlation between oven-dry density and dimensional changes of the wood showed that there was a positive relationship between the mentioned properties in all the three seeds, while the correlation coefficient of the Armenian seed was stronger than that of the other two seeds.