Investigation of The Morphological Characteristics of Cones and Seeds of The Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Natural Populations in Northwestern Türkiye

Aim of study: The aim of this study is to investigate the morphological characteristics of Scots pine cones and seeds in a variety of natural populations. Area of study: The study was carried out in 12 different natural Scots pine populations in the Western Black Sea Region of Türkiye. Material and method: A total of 600 cone and 1727 seed samples were collected from 12 natural Scots pine populations. Multivariate Analysis of Variance and post-hoc test were used to investigate differences in cone and seed characteristics including cone length (cl), cone diameter (cd), cl/cd ratio, seed length (sl), seed width (sw), sl/sw ratio, seed wing length (wl), seed wing width (ww) and wl/ww between populations. Main results: Cone and seed morphological characteristics of Scots pine individuals showed statistically significant differences between populations. The Dedemdağ (Tosya) population had the largest cones in terms of both diameter and length, while the Kızılkaya (Yenice) and Kartalkaya (Aladağ) populations had the smallest cones. Research highlights: The protection of natural populations of Scots pine is very important, especially for the conservation of seed resources. This study provides important information about potential Scots pine populations in Northwestern Türkiye.