Time of Flowering and Seed Ripening in Southern Pines.

摘要

Accurate knowledge of the time of year when pine flowers and seeds ripen is of vital importance to forest tree breeders and foresters responsible for seed procurement. The recent rise in interest and activity in breeding southern yellow pines has pointed up the fact that very little is known about the pattern of flower development and seed ripening for each species over the South. Certainly the need for this information is great. Seedlings of the southern yellow pines are being planted in astronomical numbers--over 300 million in 1954. Selection of superior individual trees and races, controlled pollination within and between species, and studies of inheritance of good and bad traits are being carried on by many workers in the South. Seed orchards are being established with grafted stock of outstanding wild trees. Seed, pollen, and scion material are being widely exchanged by technicians in tree genetics who could much better plan their cooperative work if they knew the time of flowering and seed ripening throughout the 200 million acres of the southern pine area extending from Virginia to Texas.