Variation within and among Quercus castaneifolia populations based on their seedling characteristics

In order to investigate variation within and among Quercus castaneifolia populations, seed source effects and their parent trees on several seedling characteristics, seeds were collected from 34 mother plants originated from the habitats named Chamestan, Lavich (located in Noor), Koohsar-Kandeh and Khorram-Chamaz (located in Behshahr) (125, 450, 150 and 630 m above sea level, respectively). The seeds were sown at Pasand research station (26 m above sea level). At the end of the first year growing season, seed origin effects were investigated on survival, collar diameter, seedling height, leaf length, leaf width, leaf shape and leaf area. The strongest and weakest seedlings on the different origins were also specified based on the studied characteristics. Results indicated that the variations among the populations were statistically significant. The seedlings originated from the mother plants of Chamestan and Khorram-Chamaz were in better conditions than the seedlings of other locations. Moreover, difference between the mother plants of each location was also significant at 1% level of probability, based on the most of the recorded characters that indicated suitable variation within all populations. PCA analysis reveals that collar diameter, seedling height, leaf length, leaf width, and leaf area described 70% of the variance. Cluster analysis classified the genotypes into six groups.