COST Action E 52 - vTI - Bund.de

46
curreNT sTaTe oF euroPeaN beech
(Fagus sylvatica L.) GeNe-PooL IN beLGIum
PATRICK MERTENS 1 – ELODIE BAY 1 – BART DE CUYPER 2
1 Département de l’Etude du Milieu Naturel et Agricole, Direction du Milieu Forestier,
Avenue Maréchal Juin, 23, B-5030 Gembloux, Belgique/Belgium
2 Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Gaverstraat 4, B-9500 Geraardsbergen, Belgium
absTracT
Walloon forests cover approximately 555,000 ha with ,6% beech stands (“hêtre” in French, Fagus
sylvatica L. in Latin) which represents % of forests. It is the second most important broadleaved
species after oak, with a wood volume of 10,000,000 m³. It is a native species of the Walloon Region.
Forests in Flanders cover about 150,000 ha, having an afforestation index of 11%. The most important
tree species are poplar (45,000 ha) and pedunculate oak (30,000 ha) while beech occupies the third
place, covering 21,000 ha.
Key words: Fagus sylvatica L., beech, hêtre (in Belgian), Wallon Region, Flemish Region, gene-pool,
genetic resources, current status
euroPeaN beech dIsTrIbuTIoN IN beLGIum
Wallon region
Five provenance regions were defined according to natural delineations (Fig. 1). Beech is potentially
well adapted to the whole Walloon Region. However, 0% of beech forests are located in Ardenne
and 15% in Gaume regions. Half of the beech forests is found at higher altitudes greater than 400 m,
and more than 5% grows on slope of at least 5° (IPRFW 2000) 1 .
Flemish region
As beech naturally occurs on loamy and sandy-loamy soils, its area in Flanders covers the provenance
regions “Brabant District West” and the southern part of “Brabant District East” (Fig. 1).
characTerIsTIcs aNd ForesT maNaGemeNT
Wallon region
Beech forests cover 42,000 ha in the Walloon region. 89% of those stands are composed of beech,
and considered as pure; oaks complete the stand composition. Average basal area of those stands is