sdu faculty of forestry journal special edition 2009 - Orman Fakültesi

35,0
30,0
25,0
20,0
15,0
10,0
5,0
0,0
SDÜ ORMAN FAKÜLTESİ DERGİSİ
Insects* L.
occidentalis
Small
mammals
45
MSRM-1
MSRM-2
PNM
D. pinea Other
causes
Figure 1. Main damages observed on 3-yrs old Pinus pinea cones according different
pine forests. (MSRM-1 “Parco Migliarino S. Rossore Massaciuccoli” MSRM-2, Tirrenia;
PNM “Parco Naturale della Maremma”
3.4 Test seed viability. Quality of seeds resulted quite variable after visual
assessment and TZ test. Seeds discarded were about 35% from apparently healthy
cones and raised up to 55% and 64% from partially injured and injured cones
respectively (Table 6).
Table 6. Percentage of seed losses in healthy and injured cones by D. pinea.
Percentage
of seed losses
after/
Visual
assessment
Seeds from
healthy cones
(n.503)
Seeds from
partially Injured cones
(n.1056)
Seeds from
Injured cones
(n.1221)
TOT
(n.2780)
34,4 50,5 60,9 52,1
TZ test 0,9 4,6 3,8 3,4
T. losses 35,3 55,1 64,6 55,5
4. DISCUSSION
Due to the losses of seed production several survey activities have been
promoted by Italian local regional governments. In this study, conduced during the
period 2006-2008, mainly supported by the Tuscany region, the surveys showed
that seed losses can be attributed to different causes but mainly to D. pinea, the
fungal parasite which is able to colonize a large amount of cones since the first