Influence of climatic factors on fruit morphological traits in Populus euphratica Oliv.

Abstract

Populus euphratica Oliv. is a native species in arid and semi- arid zone of Iran distributing naturally in the vast regions. We studied the variation in fruit morphological traits in P. euphratica trees originating from seven provenances of Iran. P. euphratica samples were prepared from Karaj Research Station. In this study, catkin length, number of capsules in each catkin, capsule length, capsule width, capsule length to capsule width ratio, number of seeds in each capsule, seed length, seed width, seed length to seed width ratio, the weight of 1000 seeds and germination rate were measured. Analysis of variance on all morphological traits except germination showed significant differences (P < 0.05) among provenances. In addition, positive significant correlations were observed in some of the fruit morphological traits. Capsule length, seed length and number of seeds in each capsule showed a significant positive correlation with mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature and longitude. Seed width showed a significant negative correlation with longitude and latitude. The results show that morphological fruit characteristics in P. euphratica are mainly influenced by the mean annual temperature of the origins.

Keywords

• climate, fruit morphological traits, iran, populus euphratica