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1FAO - Nucis-Newsletter, Number 7 December 1998

N U C I SN E W S L E T T E R

Number 7 December 1998Information Bulletin of the Research Network on Nuts (FAO-CIHEAM)

IRTA - Mas Bové ● Coordination Centre of the Research Network on Nuts

P. atlantica trees growing in Petra, Jordan

FAO CIHEAMNut Network

EDITORIAL

IAMZ. She has taken over the post of J.Boyazoglu who resigned in 1997. She willbe responsible for promoting scientificand technical cooperation among Euro-pean and Mediterranean basin countriesthrough joint research projects and ex-changing experience and information. Inrelation to the Chestnut Subnetwork, G.Bounous from Torino University, Italy,has taken over from J.A. Gomes Pereiraas Liaison Officer.

This year, the publication of two geneticresources catalogues and R&D invento-ries for hazelnut and walnut is also plan-ned. The catalogue on Walnut Germ-plasm, Research and References will beready for the forthcoming Walnut Interna-tional Symposium next September. Thecatalogue on Hazelnut Germplasm, Re-

During 1998 a number of important activi-ties were carried out within the Interregio-nal Cooperative Research Network onNuts following the programme (1997-2002). The Second International Courseon Nut Production and Economics, whichlasted for two weeks, was held in May1998 in Adana, Turkey, organized by CI-HEAM-IAMZ jointly with the ÇukurovaUniversity and FAO, with the collabora-tion of the Pistachio Research Institute ofGaziantep, Turkey, and with the contribu-tion of the Commission of the EuropeanUnion (DG I). The Second InternationalSymposium on Chestnut was held in Bor-deaux, France in October 1998. ThisSymposium was organized by the InstitutNational de la Recherche Agronomique(INRA) under the auspices of the Interna-tional Society for Horticultural Science(ISHS) and supported by FAO and CI-HEAM. During 1999, the CoordinationBoard of the Research Nut Network willmeet immediately before the EleventhGREMPA Meeting on Almond and Pista-chio to be held in September in Sanliurfa,Turkey. Also the Fourth InternationalSymposium on Walnut will be held in Bor-deaux, France in September. In Novem-ber 1999, an International Congress onStonepine will be held in Valladolid,Spain. In each case, corresponding sub-network meetings will take place. A mee-ting of the Economics Subnetwork is plan-ned for next year.

In addition, some important changes whi-ch will affect the management and run-ning of activities have taken place. IsabelAlvarez Senior Regional Officer (Resear-ch and Technology) of the FAO’s Regio-nal Office for Europe, has been appointedand she will be in charge of the activitiesof our Nut Network jointly with CIHEAM-

search and References is being editedand we plan to produce it during 1999.The catalogue on Pistachio Germplasm,Research and References will be produ-ced jointly with the International Plant Ge-netic Resources Institute (IPGRI) afterthe agreement reached at the IPGRI-JUST Workshop on Pistacia held recentlyin Irbid, Jordan. This catalogue will beproduced on paper and CD-ROM. Thesecatalogues are being funded by FAO'sRegional Office for Europe (REU) and theSeed and Plant Genetic Resources Servi-ces (AGPS) and CIHEAM-IAMZ.

Regarding genetic resources, also duringthe Coordination Meeting held at Rome in1997, it was agreed to develop speciesDescriptor Lists in collaboration withIPGRI. We planned and proposed to

CIHEAM

2 FAO - Nucis-Newsletter, Number 7 December 1998

IPGRI (Germplasm Documentation Offi-ce) the development of two species des-criptors on hazelnut and chestnut. Howe-ver, due to the long list of Descriptorswaiting to be edited and produced, IPGRIdecided to meet early priorities. We haveagreed to continue revising and comple-ting the descriptor list draft on hazelnut,produced by A.I. Köksal, during a specificmeeting next summer in Sanliurfa, Turkeywhich will be held during the XI GREMPAMeeting. Once the hazelnut’s descriptor listwill be revised and ready it will be sent toIPGRI for production. The FAO-CIHEAMNut Network's members who have partici-pated on the development of two IPGRIdescriptors lists for cultivated pistachio,1997 and wild Pistacia, 1998 are proud ofthe outcome.

A high number of activities regardingscientific collaboration and training havebeen carried out since the establishmentby FAO in 1990 of the Interregional Co-operative Research Network on Nuts.However, an important gap is still to be fi-lled, namely, the development of joint re-search projects with the participation ofpartners from different countries. Wehave tried hard in several occasions, pre-paring proposals and applying for Euro-pean calls but without much success. Weshould go further, drafting project propo-sals and seeking funding opportunities.There is a forthcoming European Resear-ch Framework for funding research pro-jects. We should look for funding sourcesin the future if we are to strengthen colla-borative work within the Nut Network.

An important event for the NUCIS News-letter, since last issue, is a short versioninclusion on the Internet Web pages ofboth FAO (http://www.fao.org/regional/Europe/public-e/nucis.htm) and CIHEAM(ht tp: / /www. iamz.c iheam.org/ ingles/nucis6.htm). The contents of the Newslet-ter can be browsed through these pagesand also copied and printed. This will fur-ther help to spread your information. Inaddition, general information on the NutNetwork activities can be found in En-glish at (http://www.iamz.ciheam.org/ingles/nuts.htm).

As in past NUCIS editorials, we stressagain that this Newsletter must be an effec-tive vehicle of communication among theNetwork members. The pages of this bul-letin are open to all readers who wouldlike to express their opinion about thework developed by the Network (activitiescarried out and planned) or to publishshort articles and reports on relevant hor-ticultural subjects of general interest. Wereceive a sufficient number of contributio-ns from the Mediterranean basin andoverseas (examples of the Australian andthe USA reports on almond breeding in this

issue). However, the sections on news andnotes and also on congresses and mee-tings are usually difficult to cover due to thescarce information received and thus con-tributions are most welcomed. Otherwise,the Editor reports on the issues or which heis aware of but certainly there are manymore activities carried out throughout theyear which merit reporting. Also the placefor ‘grey’ bibliography (references and do-cuments which are difficult to search likeMasters or Ph Theses) is scarcely filled.

The exchange of information betweenNetwork members through the pages ofthis Newsletter is the basis for developingcollaboration. We are asking contributorswho send articles, news, notes, blbliogra-phic references, etc. to the different sec-tions, to send them through Internet usingthe Editor’s Email. The alternative is toprovide them on diskette. Informationshould be sent ‘in English’. The editingtask invested in the seven NUCIS News-letter issues already published, has beenhuge (NUCIS 1, 8 pages; 2, 20 pages; 3,24 pages; 4, 28 pages; 5, 36 pages; 6, 52pages and 7, 44 pages). This time consu-ming editing work cannot longer be facedby the Coordination Centre of our NutNetwork as time and resources are limi-ted; thus editing has to be reduced to aminimum and therefore contributions sho-uld be sent in camera ready format. Thisbulletin is reproduced in black and whiteonly, including figures. We thank all whohave contributed to this issue. Pleasesend your contributions for the next issue,no. 8 (December 1999) by the end of Oc-tober 1999. Finally we wish all Nut Net-work members and collaborators an ima-ginative and happy 1999.

The Editor

The designations employed and thepresentation of material in this publica-tion do not imply the expression of anyopinion whatsoever on the part of theFood and Agriculture Organization ofthe United Nations concerning the legalstatus of any country, territory, city orarea or of its authorities, or concerningthe delimitation of its frontiers or boun-daries.

This publication contains the collectiveviews of an international group of ex-perts and does not necessarily repre-sent the decisions or the stated policyof the Food and Agriculture Organiza-tion of the United Nations nor of the In-ternational Centre for Advanced Medite-rranean Agronomic Studies of the Orga-nization for the Economic Cooperationand Development.

Contributions should be written conci-sely in English. Please send contributio-ns by Email or on diskette (Microsoft®

Word or Word Perfect®). Authors areresponsible for the content of their pa-pers. Reproduction of the articles is au-thorized, provided that the original sour-ce is clearly stated.

EDITORIAL .......................................... 1

ARTICLES AND REPORTS

• Nut situation and outlook in Turkey .................... 3

• Taxonomy of the almonds ...................................5

• Characterization of almond germplasmin Lebanon ............................................................6

• The University of California almond breedingprogramme: I. Historical aspects .......................... 8

• Almond improvement in Australia ..................... 10

• Possibilities of breeding almond resistant tocapnode (Capnodis tenebrionis L.) ..................... 11

• Quantitative traits in almond fruits .................... 12

• Seasonal changes in leaf water losses in eightalmond cultivars ..................................................14

• Almond tree cultivation in the Trás-os-Montesregion, Portugal: An overview of the currentsituation ..............................................................17

• Incidence of apple mosaic virus (ApMV) diseaseon hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) in Spain, and itseffects on yield ....................................................18

• Walnut (J. regia L.)genetic resources in Europe 20

• Nut crops situation in Romania .........................23

• Phylogeny of the genus Pistacia as determinedfrom analysis of the chloroplast genome ............ 25

• Use of wild pistachios in the Mediterranean regionof Turkey .............................................................26

• Current situation and prospects of the stonepineas nut producer ...................................................28

• Carob genetic resources in the Balearic Islands 32

• Carob production in Croatia ..............................34

NEWS AND NOTES

• Change of ESCORENA coordination .................. 34

• Change of the Chestnut Subnetwork LiaisonOfficer .................................................................35

• Observation of a P. terebinthus hermaphrodite inIsrael ...................................................................35

• A Pistacia vera seed collection trip toTurkmenistan ......................................................35

• The retirement of Antonio Felipe .......................36

• Book review ......................................................37

CONGRESSES AND MEETINGS

• II International Course on Production andEconomics of Nut Crops ......................................37

• II International Chestnut Symposium held inBordeaux, France ................................................38

• International Pistacia Workshop held in Irbid,Jordan .................................................................38

• European Symposium on Plant Genetic Resourcesfor Food and Agriculture held in Braunschweig,Germany ..............................................................39

• International Almond Seminar held at Santiago,Chile ....................................................................39

• III International Symposium on Pistachios andAlmonds ..............................................................39

TO BE HELD ...................................... 40

BIBLIOGRAPHY................................ 40

CONTENTS Page


ARTICLES ANDREPORTS

NUT SITUATION ANDOUTLOOK IN TURKEY

INTRODUCTIONTurkey is one of the major nut producingcountries in the world. It produces around73% of hazelnut, 13% of walnut, 18% ofchestnut, 4% of almond and 14% of pista-chio production of the world (Koksal et al,1995). Hazelnut has the largest share ofnut production and increased its sharefrom 56.9% to 61.5% in 1980-94 period.Walnut, having second place in total nutproduction, lost its share from 23.5% to15.9% in this period. Chestnut and al-mond took third and fourth place with10.8% and 6.4% respectively and theirshares remained almost the same. Pista-chio having the smallest share has in-creased its share from 2.9% to 5.4%.

Nut yields per tree except walnut have in-creased in the last 15 years. Hazelnutproductivity increased from 1.1 kg/tree to1.4 kg/tree while walnut productivity de-creased in 1980-94 period from 37.9 kg/tree to 34.5 kg/tree. Chestnut and almondyields increased from 36.7 and 8.9 kg/tree to 40.2 and 12.1 kg/tree respectively.Pistachio productivity also has increasedfrom 0.9 kg/tree to 2.2 kg/tree in the sameperiod. Since the prices are kind of com-munication signals which serve in variousways to coordinate production and mar-keting decisions and the prices are alsoreliable data to work with, it is sensible tolook at the prices received by farmers inthe nut sector. There is a continuous in-crease in all nut prices with some excep-tions. Prices of hazelnut, walnut, chestnut,almond and pistachio increased from$83.9, $94.6, $55.2, $76.3 and $225.3 per100 kg in the beginning of 1980’s to $173.9,$129.1, $134.1, $102.4 and $277.5 per 100kg in 1996 respectively. The trends in theprices indicate that substantial productionincrease in nut market might be expected inthe near future.

Turkey is a leading country in hazelnutproduction, export and domestic con-sumption with 72.4%, 84.4% and 38.7 %respectively among the major hazelnutproducing countries, Italy, USA, Spainand Greece according to 1990-95 avera-ge figures. Turkey is one of the oldestwalnut producing countries due to beingthe motherland of walnut (Sen, 1986). Al-though production of pistachio in Turkeygoes back to very old times, today’s pro-duction has not increased to the expectedlevels because pistachio is produced indry and low productive lands and thus

yield per tree is very low. Pistachio pro-duction in Turkey is expected to enter intoa new stage because of Southeast Anato-lia Project (GAP) which provided irrigatedconditions for pistachio cultivation. Be-cause of this large project, increases inpistachio production is expected in thenear future.

PRODUCTIONHazelnut production increased from286.7 to 481.7 thousand tons, while wal-nut production declined slightly with fluc-tuations from 121.3 to 118.3 thousandtons in 1980-94 period (Table 1). Produc-tion of chestnut has continuously andsubstantially increased from 57.5 to 80.3thousand tons with some fluctuations inthe last 15 years. Almond production in-creased from 34.0 to 47.3 thousand tonsin the same years. Pistachio productionalmost remained the same in the 1980’sbut increased from 13.8 to 39.8 in 1990’sand to 60.0 thousand tons in 1996.

Hazelnut, which is produced generally onsteepy lands in Eastern Blacksea Regionof Turkey and which has an importantrole in Turkish’s economy, is one of themost important traditional export pro-ducts. Hazelnut cultivation, which has thebest ecological conditions in the BlackseaRegion and protects land from erosion, isthe most important economic activity inthe region. Blacksea Region holds 68.9%of hazelnut production followed by WestAnatolia (Aegean and Marmara Agricultu-ral Regions) with 17.4% and Central Ana-tolia (Central North, Central East andCentral South Agricultural Regions) with12.6%. There was about 3.0% shift of ha-zelnut production share from Blacksea toWest Anatolia Region in 1980-94 period.

Walnut production is spread out all overthe country. Central Anatolia Regionholds the first place with 30.7% followedby West Anatolia with 24.4%. Share ofwalnut production in Central Anatolia andBlacksea Region declined from 32.8%and 20.1% to 30.7% and 15.0% respecti-vely in 1980-94 period. On the otherhand, Share of walnut production in WestAnatolia, Mediterranean and East Anato-lia (North East and South East Agricultu-ral Regions) Regions increased from

21.8%, 6.7% and 18.6% to 24.4%, 9.0%and 20.9% in 1980-94 period respectivelywith some fluctuations.

Chestnut is mainly produced in WestAnatolia and Blacksea regions with67.6% and 27.7% respectively and the re-maining 4.7% is produced in other regio-ns. Share of chestnut production in WestAnatolia Region increased from 44.6% to67.6% while share of chestnut productionin Central Anatolia and Blacksea Regionsdecreased from 14.4% and 40.4% to4.4% and 27.7% in 1980-94 period res-pectively with some fluctuations

Almond is produced mainly in the WestAnatolia and Central Anatolia Regions.Share of almond production in West Ana-tolia and East Anatolia Regions decrea-sed from 39.4% and 20.7% to 32.5% and12.0% in 1990-94 period respectively withsome fluctuations while share of almondproduction in Central Anatolia and Medi-terranean Regions increased from 27.4%and 11.4% to 34.1% and 20.9% in 1980-94 period respectively.

Pistachio production is mainly concentratedin East Anatolia and Mediterranean Re-gions. East Anatolia holds 53.2% of pista-chio production followed by Mediterraneanand Central Anatolia Region with 36.9%and 11.3% respectively. East Anatolia andCentral Anatolia Regions decreased theirshare from 53.2% and 15.7% to 47.7% and11.3% respectively while Mediterraneanand West Anatolia Regions increased theirshares from 28.0% and 3.0% to 36.9% and4.0% respectively with some fluctuations inthe last 15 years.

INTERNATIONAL TRADEHazelnut export has an important place inTurkish economy and increased steadilyfrom 104.2 to 184.3 thousand tons for thelast 15 years (Table 2). Export of walnutis in small amounts and declined substan-tially from 2.9 to 0.4 thousand tons in re-cent years. Compared to production level,it can be said that walnut is being mainlyproduced for domestic consumption. Al-mond export was again in very smallamount and declined from 0.5 to 0.3 thou-sand tons in 1980-94 period. Almond isalso produced mainly for domestic con-

Table 1. Average nut production levels 1980-94 (1,000 t)

Periods Hazelnut Walnut Chestnut Almond Pistachio

1980-82 286.7 121.3 57.5 34.0 15.31983-85 325.0 115.4 57.0 37.3 13.61986-88 345.0 110.0 83.3 38.3 13.81989-91 470.0 116.7 78.0 46.0 39.31992-94 481.7 118.3 80.3 47.3 39.8

Source: SIS, Agricultural Structure and Production, 1980-94 and Blacksea Hazelnut Exporters Union Records.


sumption. Pistachio export increased to2.5 thousand tons in 1980’s, decreased to0.7 thousand tons in the beginning of1990’s and increased again to 1.25 thou-sand tons in 1996.

Turkey exports hazelnut mainly to certaincountries classified under four groups.Germany, the largest Turkish hazelnutImporting country, increased its importfrom 54.6 to 106.7 thousand tons withsome fluctuations in the period of 1984-95. Other 7 largest hazelnut importingcountries in Europe (Italy, France, Ne-therlands, Belgium, England, Switzerlandand Austria) also increased Turkishhazelnut import from 44.8 to 98.4 thou-sand tons with some fluctuations. Russiadecreased its Turkish hazelnut importfrom around 16.3 thousand tons to 1.7thousand tons because of the breakdownof Russia in 1991. Other countries of theworld increased amount of their Turkishhazelnut import from 5.5 to 34.6 thousandtons in last 13 years.

Turkey is also exporting hazelnut to otherhazelnut producing countries. Italy is thelargest Turkish hazelnut importing coun-try among hazelnut producing countriesfollowed by USA and Spain. Italy increa-sed its Turkish hazelnut import from 7.6to 28.5 thousand tons in 1983-95 period.USA, Spain and Greece also increasedtheir Turkish hazelnut import from 1.5, 0.0and 9.0 to 6.7, 5.7 and 3.1 thousand tonsrespectively in the same years.

GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENTHazelnut producers usually sell their pro-ducts with respect to price level and pay-ment conditions to the local merchants or tothe Union of Hazelnut Sale Cooperative(FISKOBIRLIK) of which they are mem-bers. This cooperative purchases hazelnutat support price level which is determinedfor 1 kg unshelled hazelnut with 50 % yield.Hazelnut prices do not usually fluctuate be-low the market prices because of the pur-chases made by this cooperative and thushazelnut producers do get a sufficient inco-me (Sayili and Cicek, 1996).

Support price level was $100.7 per 100kg in the early 1980’s, varied as $92.3,

$112.6 and $99.3 in the 1980’s, increa-sed to $124.1 in the early 1990’s and$187.5 in 1995-96 depending upon hazel-nut market situations and political deci-sions. On the other hand, export fund de-clined from $99.3 to $9.0 per 100 kg in1980-96 period. In conclusion, govern-ment has supported hazelnut producersby increasing support price and hazelnutexporters by decreasing export fund whi-ch is a type of export tax on hazelnut ex-port in this period.

The amount of hazelnut purchased bycooperative has declined from 152.9 to83.7 thousand tons in 1980-94 periodwith some fluctuations. On the otherhand, the private sector has increased itsshare from the 47.1% to the 81.3% in last15 years. This means that the share ofthe cooperative in hazelnut market hasdeclined. The amount of hazelnut expor-ted by the cooperative declined from 40.7to 4.7 thousand tons. But the private sec-tor has increased its share in export from60.7% to 97.5% in the last 15 years. The-se figures show that the cooperative lostits importance in foreign market morethan the domestic market.

Pistachio is purchased by the SoutheastAgricultural Sale Cooperatives at supportprice level. In the high production years,these cooperatives enter into market topurchase pistachio at support price levelin order to have prices not to go below acertain level which guaranties pistachiosupply. After harvest, producers wait sup-port price to be determined so that theycan sell their products above this price le-vel. This floor price stabilizes the market.Determining the support price level befo-re the harvest might increase pistachioproduction and its quality.

IMPORTANT ISSUESHazelnut production increased in recentyears along with the marketing problemsin the presence of high levels of storage.The arguments such as restriction of ha-zelnut planted areas, increasing marketshare in domestic and foreign marketsand decreasing export fund level ofhazelnut have been put on the agenda.Cetiner (1988) claimed that hazelnut pro-

duction should be re-structured and thelaw determining hazelnut planted areasshould be enacted. Moreover, Aral (1990)said that there must be restrictions on ha-zelnut production and the flat land on whi-ch hazelnuts are planted can be used forother agricultural activities. On the otherhand, Koksal (1990) stated that hazelnutproduction must be increased but bottomlands should be spared for other crops. InTurkey, currently the problem is not an ex-cess of supply but inadequate marketing.

Sagra and Ozalp (1988) suggested thatincreasing the domestic consumption le-vel is a very important issue as far as thefuture of hazelnut is considered. Yucel(1990) also stated that increasing domes-tic demand for hazelnut production is im-portant because there is a higher poten-tial than today’s consumption levels in thedomestic market. To explore this poten-tial, alternative consumption attitudesneed to be created by emphasizing on di-fferent price and income policies by ta-king producer and consumer’s point ofview into consideration.

Yucel (1990) stated that different kind ofpolicies such as Hazelnut Support andExport Fund need to be implemented ca-refully by taking the conditions of produ-cers and consumers into consideration.Ozesen (1988) suggested that exportfund should be decreased or adjusted innecessary periods to avoid unjust compe-tition. Pirinccioglu and Arikbay (1987) dis-cussed export fund level by determininghazelnut demand and supply functions,and concluded that increasing fund levelslightly more than 100 cent per kg wouldbe beneficial for the country.

Yucel (1990) said that although Turkeyexports 70-75% of world trade of hazel-nut, it does not have sufficient marketpower in world hazelnut industry. Sagraand Ozalp (1988) stated that in foreignmarket, there should be made an effort,not only for selling hazelnut but also forstandardizing Turkish hazelnut, to giveconfidence to the customers by emphasi-zing on marketing activities. Cetiner(1990) suggested that Turkey must try toexpand hazelnut consumption in theworld by creating new and different pro-cessed products containing hazelnut intheir ingredients for new markets to in-crease hazelnut export. Yazicioglu (1990)suggested that Turkey must also turn tonew markets such as Japan and Russiamaintaining classic European markets.

According to results of Turkish hazelnutmodel constructed by Yavuz and Birinci(1996), reducing hazelnut planted areascaused its production, consumption andexport to decrease. While lower hazelnutmarket price caused domestic con-

Table 2. Average nut export levels (1,000 t), 1980-94

Periods Hazelnut Walnut Chestnut Almond Pistachio

1980-82 104.2 2.9 3.1 0.5 0.41983-85 131.2 2.5 6.1 0.5 2.61986-88 135.9 1.8 5.3 0.6 2.51989-91 164.9 1.2 4.4 0.3 1.51992-94 184.3 0.4 5.1 0.3 0.7

Source: SIS, Agricultural Structure and Production, 1980-94 and Blacksea Hazelnut Exporters Union Records.


sumption to increase substantially, higherper capita income made domestic con-sumption to increase slightly. Supportedhazelnut export influenced negatively fo-reign trade of hazelnut while affecting do-mestic consumption in positive direction.Increasing foreign demand of hazelnutcaused export to increase and domesticconsumption to decrease.

The economic problems that the pistachiomarket is facing are unstability in pricesupport and the domestic and foreignmarketing problems. The balance betwe-en production and export has not beenreached yet. When there is productionsurplus and lack of export market pricesare low. In addition, when there is lack ofproduction and excess foreign demand,the prices become very high. There is aneed to find stability in supporting pricelevels and foreign demand to improve pis-tachio production in quantity and quality.Since pistachio export is made in a tradi-tional way, its process also needs to bemodernized and better organized.

REFERENCES

Aral, C. , 1990. Panel for Hazelnut Pro-duction - Consumption Balance in Tur-key, Economics Research Foundation,pp.14. Istanbul. [in Turkish]

Cetiner, E., 1988. Hazelnut Production inTurkey, Seminar on the Essentials of Tur-kish Hazelnut Policy, Economics Resear-ch Foundation, Istanbul. [in Turkish]

Cetiner, E., 1990. Problems of HazelnutProduction in Eastern Blacksea Regionand Precautions Required to IncreaseProductivity, Symposium on ProductivityProblems of Agricultural Production inEastern Blacksea Region, National Pro-ductivity Center No: 404 Ankara. [in Tur-kish]

Koksal, I., 1990. Panel for HazelnutProduction - Consumption Balance inTurkey, Economics Research Founda-tion, pp.25. Istanbul. [in Turkish]

Koksal, I., Okay, Y. and Kunter, B.,1995, Consumption Projections andProduction Targets of Nuts, National IV.Technique Congress of Turkish Agricul-ture Engineer, Ankara [in Turkish]

Ozesen, B., 1988. The Importance ofFiskobirlik in Hazelnut Marketing in Tur-key, Seminar on the Essentials of Tur-kish Hazelnut Policy, Economics Re-search Foundation, Istanbul. [in Tur-kish]

Pirinccioglu, N. and Arikbay, C., 1987.World Hazelnut Market, The Place ofTurkey and its Impact, National Produc-tivity Center No: 357, Ankara. [in Tur-kish]

Sagra, U. and Ozalp, Y., 1988. Hazel-nut Marketing in Turkey (Domestic Con-sumption), Seminar on the Essentials ofTurkish Hazelnut Policy, Economic Re-search Foundation, Istanbul. [in Tur-kish]

Sayili, M. and Cicek, A. (1996), The Roleof Fiskobirlik and Private Sector in Hazel-nut Production and Marketing in Turkey,National II. Agricultural Economics Mee-ting of Turkey, Adana. [in Turkish]

Sen, M. S., 1986. Walnut Culture, EserPrinting, Samsun. [in Turkish]

Yavuz, F., Birinci, A., 1996. A PoliticalAnalysis of Hazelnut Market in Turkey,Hazelnut and Other Nuts Symposium,Samsun. [in Turkish]

Yazicioglu, Y. (1990). Panel for Hazel-nut Production - Consumption Balancein Turkey, Economics Research Foun-dation, pp.27. Istanbul. [in Turkish]

Yucel, Y. (1990). Panel for HazelnutProduction - Consumption Balance inTurkey, Economics Research Founda-tion, pp.45. Istanbul. [in Turkish]

F. YavuzDepartment of Agricultural Economics

College of Agriculture, Atatürk University25240 Erzurum - Turkey

Pistachio growing in Gaziantep region, Turkey

TAXONOMY OFTHE ALMONDS

I was invited by the editor of NUCIS to ex-press my opinion on the taxonomy of the al-monds or why the almonds should be keptas a separate genus?, in response to a re-cent paper by R. Socias i Company (1998).In his paper, Socias i Company recommen-ded to place the almond species within thegenus Prunus L.; and to avoid consideringthem as a separate genus (Amygdalus L.),as Browicz and Zohary did in their 1996taxonomic and evolutionary survey. I wishto thank the editor of NUCIS for his kind in-vitation to present my view on how oneshould rank the almonds.

The twenty six almond species (Browiczand Zohary 1996, Table 1) comprise a dis-tinct and easily recognizable natural group,well separated from the other hard-stonedrosaceous fruit trees. When one is confron-ted with a well defined (and considerablydiversified) group, comprising more thantwo dozens species, the decision whetherto keep them as an independent genus, orto regard them only as a subgenus is large-ly a matter of personal interpretation. Bothtreatments are taxonomically “legal”. Mostfield botanists familiar with the almonds intheir center of species diversity (the Asiaticrepublics of former USSR, Afghanistan,Iran and Turkey), have kept the almonds asa separate genus. The list includes K.Browicz, V. P. Denizov, M. G. Pachomova,S. Serafimov, O. A. Svjazeva, and V. I. Za-prjagaeva (for references consult Browiczand Zohary 1996). Except for the first au-thor, their contributions are mostly in Rus-sian, and are not very familiar to most wor-kers in the West. In contrast, horticulturistsand botanists in west Europe and in northAmerica, impressed by the success in cros-sing almonds to peaches, apricots andplums tended to follow Rehder (1940, p.452) and place the almonds (as a subge-nus) in an extended genus Prunus. A para-llel situation exists in wheat. Some authorsregard Triticum and Aegilops as two sepa-rate genera. Other, having in mind crossingand allopolyploidy, lump them in a singlegenus. All in all, differences in delimitationof generic boundaries abound in plant taxo-nomy; and crop plant evolutionists, conser-vationists, breeders and geneticists havesomehow to live with the proliferation of bo-tanical names they cause. What should bestressed is that as long as the naturalgroups of species remain, their taxonomicranking (whether genera, subgenera, oreven sections) does not effect considerablyour orientation as to patterns of divergence.For me, the clusters of species in the ro-saceous hard-stoned fruit trees are impor-tant - much more then their debated taxo-nomic rank. In other words, one can livewith either way of ranking. Yet, generic ran-


king seems to me more appropriate for thefollowing reasons:

In my field trips I was impressed by the dis-tinctiveness of the almonds as a naturalgroup. This all over their distribution rangein central and south-west Asia. I also cameto admire the extensive taxonomic, choro-logical and ecological studies carried out onthe wild almonds by colleagues in eastEurope. Studies that led them to appreciatethe uniqueness of the almond group. All inall, the information assembled indicatesthat in nature the almonds constitute a welldiverged phylogenetic branch, reproducti-vely well isolated from the other rosaceoushard-stoned wild fruit trees. This suggeststhat the ability of almonds to cross with se-veral other rosaceous hard-stoned fruittrees was over-rated when their inclusion inthe genus Prunus was considered. In short,the distinction of the almonds as a naturalgroup is the main reason why I concludedthat Amygdalus should better be kept as anindependent genus.

There is also a practical reason for recom-mending to keep Amygdalus apart. Botani-cal naming is binomial. It provides the ge-nus and the species names to each plant;but no sign on its intra-generic grouping.Therefore, if Prunus sensu latu is beingused, most workers confronted, for exam-ple, with the name Prunus argentea wouldnot be able to perceive immediately whe-ther this is a plum, a cherry, an apricot oran almond. Accept for few learned specia-lists, they would have to acquaint themsel-ves with the subdivision of Prunus, a genuswhich - in its extended form - comprisesmore than 200 species. In contrast, whenthe almonds are kept as a genus, and thebotanical name is Amygdalus argentea,most workers would be aware that they aredealing with an almond species.

REFERENCES

Browicz, K. and Zohary, D., 1996. Thegenus Amygdalus L. (Rosaceae): Spe-cies relationships, distribution and evolu-tion under domestication. Genetic Re-sources and Crop Evolution 43: 229-247.

Rehder, A., 1940. Manual of cultivatedtrees and shrubs, 2nd edn. MacMillan,New York.

Socias i Company, R., 1998. La taxono-mie de l’amandier. Proceedings of the XthGREMPA seminar, organized by the IN-RAM with the collaboration of the FAO-CIHEAM Network on Nuts. Meknes, Mo-rocco, 14-17 October 1996. Options Mé-diterranéennes, 33: 91-93.

D. ZoharyDepartment of Evolution,Systematics and EcologyThe Hebrew University,Jerusalem 91904, Israel

CHARACTERIZATIONOF ALMOND GERMPLASM

IN LEBANON

INTRODUCTIONDespite its small size, Lebanon harboursa wide variation in its natural environmentthat ranges from desertic to sub-humid.This ecological diversity has contributednot only to a high genetic diversity, buthas also allowed for the successful intro-duction and cultivation of a great varietyof fruit trees, many of which are exotic tothe country. As a result, and until recent-ly, there has been no interest in nativefruit trees with relatively low commercialvalue. The expansion of urban develop-ment projects over the better agriculturalsoils has forced many growers to esta-blish orchards on marginal lands whereonly wild or naturalized fruit trees thrive.

During its latest meetings, the Horticultu-ral Working Group (established by IPGRI)of the WANA (West Asia and North Afri-ca) region recommended the inclusion ofAlmond (Amygdalus spp) in a priority listof native fruit trees to be assessed, stu-died, and conserved (WANANET, 1992).In light of this recommendation, a projectwas initiated at the American Universityof Beirut, with the aim of surveying, cha-racterizing and documenting almondgermplasm in Lebanon.

MATERIALS AND METHODSCollection expeditions were initiated in1996 throughout Lebanon. The countrywas roughly divided into seven zones,namely the Akkar plain, North Lebanon,Mount Lebanon, South Lebanon, Nor-thern, Middle and Southern Bekaa plain.A total of 560 samples of almond weretaken from 93 sites dispersed throughout

the country. Vegetative and fruit materialwas collected for characterization. Sam-ples were taken from wild and cultivatedhabitats. Morphological characterizationof the samples was performed based ondescriptors provided by IPGRI, and spe-cies identification was confirmed by com-paring the collected material with herba-rium specimens from the Post Herbariumat the American University of Beirut.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONAlmond populations were distributed fromlatitude 33.11 °N to 33.37 °N, longitude35.23 °E to 36.27 °E, rainfall 250 mm to1,200 mm, and altitude 50 m to 1,800 m.Only three species were found, Amygda-lus orientalis Mill, A. communis L., and A.korschinskii Hand.-Mazz. Post and Dins-more (1932) reported the presence of A.communis, A. agrestis, A. orientalis, A.korschinskii, A. kotshcyi, and A. lycioides(Post, 1932). However in a later publica-tion by Mouterde (1966) only four of thesespecies were cited, namely, A. commu-nis, A. korschinskii, A. orientalis and A.agrestis (Mouterde, 1966). In our expedi-tions only three species were found al-though all locations previously reported inthe literature were visited. However,many of the previously reported siteswere destroyed or significantly degradedby urbanization, or extension of agricultu-ral lands. A. agrestis trees were not founddespite repeated visits to previously pu-blished locations, and this species hasbeen recently reported as a threatenedendemic one (Browicz and Zohary, 1996;Abi-Saleh et al., 1996). A. orientalis po-pulations were found in North East Leba-non at altitudes ranging from 1100 to1300 m, with annual average minimumand maximum temperatures of 5.4 °C and20 °C, respectively, and annual precipita-tion ranging between 250 and 450 mm.

Wild Amygdalus comunis growing on the Mediterranean maquis of the Judean hills near Jerusalen, Israel


Soils of this region were found to be cal-careous sandy clay loam, and clay soils.The populations were located in open,sunny niches in arid marginal lands.They occupied dry rocky areas and rockyslopes. These results corresponded withthose of Shalaby et al. (1997) who repor-ted similar climatic distribution of the spe-cies in Syria (Shalaby et al., 1997). Thepopulations of A. orientalis existing in Ir-sal (Anti-Lebanon) are probably an exten-sion of the distribution of this species inSyria (Ras Al-Ma’ara) at an elevation of2,000 m near the East chain of Mount-Le-banon. Browicz and Zohary (1996) indica-ted the presence of A. orientalis in altitu-des between 220 m and 2000m (Browiczand Zohary, 1996). In Lebanon, the spre-ad of this species is limited to higher ele-vations in the drier regions of the Nor-thern part of anti-Lebanon mountains. A.orientalis populations were found as spo-radic patches associated with Crataegusspp., Prunus syriaca, Rhus spp., Junipe-rus spp., and Pistacia atlantica. The ma-jor threats to A. orientalis populations arethe expansion of agricultural lands.

Populations of A. korschinskii were loca-ted in Mount-Lebanon, and in North Wes-tern Beka’a on discontinuous Terra Ros-sa soils, at elevations of 1,000 to 1,500m, with a rainfall of 400-1250 mm/year,and annual average minimum and maxi-mum temperatures of 2.7 and 21.3 °C,respectively. These results correspondwith data related to the distribution of thisspecies in Syria (Shalaby et al., 1997)where A. korschinskii exists at elevationsranging between 930 m and 1,700 m andin different climatic zones includingsubhumid and semi-arid zones. On theother hand, our results contradict those ofBrowicz and Zohary (1996) who reportedthe presence of the A. korschinskii at ele-vations ranging only from 100 to 180 m(Browicz and Zohary, 1996). Three popu-lations were found, and only one of themwas relatively dense while the otherswere composed of scattered trees. Thedense population is located in North Wes-tern Beka’a and there is evidence of par-tial management of the stand by localpeople who consumed the nuts. Treespecies associated with A. korschinskiipopulations were Crataegus spp., Quer-cus spp., Pinus spp., and Prunus micro-carpa. The major threat to the popula-tions was grafting of trees with local al-mond varieties and urban expansion.

Only two stands of presumably wild A.communis were found in Central andSouthern Bekaa at 1000 m with an avera-ge rainfall of 700 mm and average annualminimum and maximum temperatures of8.1°C and 22.6 °C, respectively. Browiczand Zohary (1996) reported that wildforms of A. communis are still found in

the Mediterranean region (Browicz andZohary, 1996). Their morphology variesdepending on the climates where theygrow; relatively large wild almonds growin the more mesic Mediterranean environ-ments whereas much smaller types occurin drier environments, and a whole rangeof intermediate forms interconnect thesetwo ecological types (Browicz and Zoha-ry, 1996). The stands of wild A. commu-nis in Lebanon were found in similarecosystems and they had similar leafmorphological traits. Although bothstands were located in mesic environ-ments the trees were not large. The limi-ted tree size is most likely due to grazingwhich is prevalent in these areas. Asso-ciated tree species found in these popula-tions were Pyrus syriaca and Pinus spp.Both populations were relatively dense,located on steep land with difficult acces-sibility. The major threats for the two po-pulations were grazing.

This survey revealed that cultivation of A.communis was practiced throughout thecountry. Four locations were identified asmain almond growing areas for commer-cial production. These are Central Bekaa,Southern Bekaa, Akkar plain and NorthLebanon. The Hirmel region containsmany new almond orchards. Most of the87 orchards that were visited during thesurvey consisted of grafted trees (85%).The few remaining seedling populationswere concentrated in Southern Bekaaand South Lebanon. These areas receivean annual rainfall ranging from 650 to 850mm with elevations ranging from 930 to1,100 m. Few populations were alsofound in North Lebanon, Mount Lebanon,Central Bekaa and Northern Bekaa. Ge-netic diversity of these cultivated seedlingpopulations was high, however many ofthese orchards are old, neglected, andsome of them have been uprooted for re-placement with other fruit trees. Seven-teen local varieties were found and cha-racterized at morphological and molecu-lar level. However the study unveiled a di-fference in nomenclature of the cultivars.In North Lebanon including Akkar plain,cultivars are assigned names and are re-cognized by local farmers. In contrast inthe Bekaa, variety nomenclature is limitedto ‘loub’ or ‘loubayn’ and ‘firk’ or ‘khasha-bi’ meaning single or double kernel andsoft-shelled or hard-shelled respectively.This selection is based on the use of al-mond in Lebanon. Surveys revealed thatfarmers in the Bekaa are purposely selec-ting trees that produce nuts with a highincidence of double kernels to meet thehigh demand for fresh kernels that aresoaked in cold water and consumed asappetizers. Such a selection, however,would render Lebanese almond non-com-petitive for export since the double kerneltrait is undesirable in foreign markets.

Another method of almond consumptionin Lebanon, probably in other countries ofthe region too, is the consumption of im-mature (fresh and green) almond fruits.These are dipped in salt and eaten wholeas appetizers. The best varieties for im-mature almond consumption are soft-she-lled ones and the ‘Aouja’ (most likely aSyrian variety) is currently the most desi-rable for this use. Small size kernels arealso selected for production of ‘moulabas’which are sugar coated almond candiescommonly offered during wedding or birthcelebrations. Almond nuts are also usedas a mix with dried black fig and madeinto syrup that is consumed as a medici-ne for bronchitis and colds. The resinfrom trees is used to produce gum. Oilfrom the bitter nuts is extracted and usedfor the production of shoe wax. A. com-munis is commonly used as a rootstockfor apricot in Northern Bekaa and forplum in Southern Bekaa, while A. orienta-lis seedlings are commonly used as fen-ces for orchards and for delimiting landproperties.

LITERATURE CITED

Abi-Saleh B., Nassar N., Rami H., SafiN., Safi S. and Tohme H., 1996. Etudede La Diversité Biologique du Liban. LaFlora Terrestre. Project GF/6105-92-72.Publication No.3, Lebanon. p.p.: 147.

Browicz K. and Zohary D., 1996. The ge-nus Amygdalus L. (Rosaceae): Speciesrelationships, distribution and evolutionunder domestication. Genetic Resourcesand Crop Evolution, 43: 229-247.

Mouterde, S.J., 1966. Nouvell Flore duLiban et de la Syrie. Tome premier. Ed.de l’imprimerie catholique. Beyrouth.

Post G. E., 1932. Flora of Syria, Palesti-ne and Sinai. Vol. 1. Publications of theFaculty of Arts and Sciences, AmericanUniversity of Beirut, Lebanon. 658 p.

Shalaby, M.N., A.A. Ghazal, R. El-Ra-yes, and N.G. Aswad, 1997. Preliminaryecological and geobotanical investiga-tions on wild species of almond (Amyg-dalus L.) in Syria. IPGRI.

WANANET, 1992. West Asia and NorthAfrica plant Genetic Resources Net-work, Phase 1.

Talhouk1, S.N., R. Lubani1,L. Parmaksizian1, R. Baalbaki1,

R. Zurayk2, and Y. Adham3

1 Department of Crop Productionand Protection,

2 Department of Soils, Irrigationand Mechanization, Faculty of Agriculture

and Food Sciences, American University ofBeirut, P.O. Box: 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon,

3 International Plant Genetic ResourcesInstitute, Regional Office for West Asia

and North Africa, c/o ICARDA,P.O.Box: 5466, Aleppo, Syria.


THE UNIVERSITYOF CALIFORNIA ALMONDBREEDING PROGRAMME:I. HISTORICAL ASPECTS

California has had a continuous almondbreeding programme since 1923. Thepresent breeding programme (1991 andlater) cannot be understood without anunderstanding of the history of the Cali-fornia almond industry and past breedingefforts (see Kester, 1990; Kester andGradziel, 1996; Kester and Ross, 1996).Originally, the California almond industrywas based on six cultivars: ‘Nonpareil’,‘Ne Plus Ultra’, ‘I.X.L.’, ‘Peerless’, ‘Texas’(now ‘Mission’) and ‘Drake’, which wereselected during the latter part of the 19thcentury by pioneer orchardists and nur-serymen, primarily A.T. Hatch of Suisun,CA (Wood, 1925). Prior to that time, al-monds were grown in solid plantings ofsingle cultivars such as ‘Languedoc’,‘Princess’, and ‘Jordan,’ with discoura-ging results. The introduction of ‘Nonpa-reil’, ‘IXL’ and ‘Ne Plus Ultra’ in mixed cul-tivar orchards resulted in improved andmore consistent yields due to the fulfill-ment of the then unrecognized need forcross-pollination. These new cultivars notonly stimulated the establishment of theearly industry but also provided the basisfor the pioneering research on pollen self-incompatibility at the newly formed Uni-versity of California (UC) Experiment Sta-tion unit at Davis, CA in 1916 (Tufts,1919; Tufts and Philp, 1922). The earlypopulations of almond seedlings produ-ced from this study became the justifica-tion for establishing the joint CaliforniaExperiment Station - United States De-partment of Agriculture (USDA) almondbreeding project under Milo Wood,USDA, (Wood, 1925). The objectives we-re to develop high quality market typesand particularly replacements for the im-ported cultivar ‘Jordan’ and other ‘Nonpa-reil’ cross-pollinators, such as ‘I.X.L.’ and‘Ne Plus Ultra’. The subsequent introduc-tion of the highly touted ‘Jordanolo’ and‘Harpareil’ (Wood, 1938) turned out to bea horticultural disaster because both pro-ved very susceptible to the genetic disor-der Noninfectious Bud-Failure, and theirpropagation was quickly abandoned bythe industry (Wilson and Schein, 1956).The joint UC-USDA almond breeding pro-ject was discontinued in 1948 and ArthurDavey of the University of CaliforniaDept. of Pomology was initially assignedto the UC project followed by EugeneSerr and Harold Forde, who continuedthe planting and evaluation of the largecollection of seedlings accumulated fromcontrolled crosses made by Wood. DaleE. Kester joined the almond improvementprogram in 1951, while Robert Jones wasassigned to the USDA almond breeding

program upon the retirement of MiloWood. Kester and Jones worked towardcompleting the evaluation of earlier selec-tions with some selections transferred tothe USDA station at Fresno, CA as thenucleus of a separate USDA program ofalmond breeding. ‘Davey’ was releasedjointly by UC and USDA from these earlyselections (Serr et al., 1953). Attributesof ‘Davey’ included a high kernel qualitysomewhat like ‘Nonpareil’, effectivenessin cross-pollination of ‘Nonpareil,’ and apotential for high commercial yields. Al-though initially widely planted, its disap-pointing field performance, particularly itsexcessive tree vigor and upright growth,resulted in delayed bearing and problemsin both pruning and harvest. A majorbreeding goal at this time was a cultivarwith ‘Nonpareil’-like kernel appearancebut producing a higher proportion withsmaller, flat “candy bar-sized” nuts. ‘Ka-pareil’, which closely matched these crite-ria, was released (Kester, et al., 1963),but it turned out to have poor yields andother tree problems. Subsequently, ‘Milo’was distributed which also had the desi-red kernel characteristics but which pro-ved to be undesirable because of difficul-ty in harvest. At this time, individualchance seedlings appearing in andaround commercial orchards were alsobeing tested and privately patented.

These introductions included such com-mercially important varieties as ‘Merced’,‘Thompson,’ and ‘Carmel’ and chanceseedlings from this source continue to bean important source of new varieties(Micke et. al, 1998). Fred Anderson, aprivate fruit and nut breeder from Le-Grand, CA introduced a series of culti-vars, two of which, ‘Butte’ and ‘Ruby,’have established an important place inthe industry (Asai et al., 1996). TheUSDA almond breeding program underJones introduced ‘Vesta’ which, despite agood kernel quality and shell seal, failedto become widely planted due to erraticgrowth and yield performance (Kesterand Gradziel, 1996). Jones also introdu-ced ‘Titan’, a late blooming almond whichwas used as a parent to produce F1 hy-brid rootstocks with peach (Jones, 1969 ).From the mid 1960’s to mid 1970’s, dra-matic changes occurred in California al-mond production practices which had ma-jor impacts on new almond variety requi-rements. These included a change fromhand to mechanized harvesting, and ashift from the early production areas innorthern and central areas of the CentralValley to the southern part of the SanJoaquin valley with its hot summers, mil-der winters and more favorable bloomweather (Micke and Kester, 1998). Asso-ciated with these production changeswere dramatic increases in both worm da-mage, particularly by navel orangeworm

(Amyelois transitella (Walker)), in thesusceptible paper-shelled cultivars suchas ‘Nonpareil’, ‘Merced’, ‘Thompson’, and‘Milow’ (IPM, 1985), and in incidence ofNoninfectious Bud-Failure in susceptiblecultivars including ‘Nonpareil’, ‘Merced’and ‘Carmel’ (Kester and Jones, 1970).Despite these problems, California saw aresultant 2- to 3-fold increase in total al-mond production with a consequent shifttowards world markets as outlets for thisnew production (Kester et al., 1980). Anew emphasis was placed on breedingprograms developing improved varietiesand rootstocks for these more intensiveproduction systems. In addition, projectswere developed to examine both the ba-sic and applied aspects of NoninfectiousBud-Failure and self-fertility in almond.

NEW VARIETY AND ROOTSTOCKDEVELOPMENTTo compare new almond cultivar androotstock selections from UC, USDA andprivate sources with standard genotypesin current use, a Regional Variety Trial(RVT) was established in the southernSan Joaquin valley in 1976. Plots consis-ted of rows of approximately 26 trees perselection alternating with similar rows ofstandard pollinizers (‘Nonpareil’, ‘Mis-sion’, and ‘Ne Plus Ultra’). Similar RVTplots were subsequently established inboth the western and in the northern Sa-cramento valley , and in both the northernand central San Joaquin valley. TheseRVT plots also included separate propa-gation sources of ‘Nonpareil’ and ‘Mis-sion’. Yield, bloom dates, harvest dates,nut quality, BF damage, and various othertraits were evaluated and data publishedannually (Asai et al., 1996) with RVT pro-ject and publication costs supported bythe Almond Board of California, Modesto,CA. A second series of three RVT plotswas established in 1994 to test recent in-troductions (Micke et al., 1998). On thebasis of the early RVT trials, ‘Sonora’,‘Solano’, and ‘Padre’ were introduced in1983 (Kester et al., 1984). ‘Sonora’ and‘Padre’ have since become widely plan-ted throughout California. In rootstockdevelopment, the use of peach x almondF1 hybrids had been evaluated for unifor-mity, vigor, nematode resistance andease of clonal propagation (Kester andGrasselly, 1987; Kester and Hansen,1966: Kester and Sartori, 1966 ). Twohybrid selections `Hansen 2168' and`Hansen 536' (Kester and Asay, 1986)were patented and introduced, the latternow being grown extensively in commer-cial orchards. A new peach x almondrootstock with improved hardiness is cu-rrently being prepared for release.

Noninfectious Bud-Failure. An extensi-ve series of experiments and trials begin-ning in the 1950’s has led an understan-


ding of the BF problem, including its ge-netic origin (Kester 1968a; 1968b; 1970)and physiological and epidemiology ex-pression (Fenton et al., 1988; Wilson andSchein, 1956). This, in turn, has led tothe establishment of methods of BF con-trol through selection, maintenance andproper management of propagation sour-ces with low potential for BF (Kester etal., 1998).

Self-fertility. Pollen incompatibility stu-dies have led to the identification of thefour incompatibility groups among the nu-merous seedling cultivar introductions ori-ginating from the natural hybridizationbetween ‘Nonpareil’ and ‘Mission’ (Kesteret al. 1994 ). These, along with isozyme(Arulsekar et al., 198L¸ Haugge, et al.,1987) and RAPD (Batolozzi et al., 1998)studies have defined the genetic base ofthe California almond cultivars. Extensi-ve data collections of almond tree and nuttraits, including self-fertility, have beenthe basis of heritability studies that em-phasize the quantitative nature of mosttraits (Kester et al., 1977). In addition thequalitative nature of a late blooming mu-tant of Nonpareil has been demonstrated(Kester, 1965). This mutant has beenused to impart late bloom character butits transmission is also associated withsome adverse traits such as depressedgrowth and vigor. Transfer of self- fertilityalleles from other Prunus species hasbeen underway since the 1950’s. Studies

with peach x almond hybrids were firstinitiated by Dr. Harold Olmo in the 1950’sand continued by Kester through the1960’s with a series of backcrosses to al-mond (Gradziel and Kester, 1998). Polli-nation studies by S.A. Weinbaum (1985)showed that the expression of self-fertilityin the orchard was complex , requiringboth self-compatibility and autogamy forfull expression. Of several selectionsmade for self-fertility, only one, a complexhybrid with P. mira showed consistentlyhigh expression of self-fertility. In a simi-lar manner, seeds of self-fertile Prunuswebbii were obtained from Yugoslaviaand grown at Davis in mid 1960’s. A se-ries of F1 and backcross populations wereproduced between Prunus dulcis and P.webbii as well as other almond speciesincluding P. bucharica, P. tangutica,and P. argentea (Kester et al., 1991). Thebreeding lines with P. webbii have resultedin the most promising selections whichhave the traits of self-fertility, high yield anddesirable tree characteristics (Gradziel andKester, 1998).

Towards the end of the 1980’s, nearingthe retirement of D.E. Kester and thetransfer of UC almond breeding responsi-bilities to T.M. Gradziel, this rather exten-sive almond germplasm collection wasevaluated and the most promising linespropagated to UC and USDA field plots.These breeding lines serve as the basegermplasm for current almond breeding

efforts which will be the subject of the se-cond paper of this series.

LITERATURE CITED

Arulsekar, S., D.E. Parfitt, and D.E.Kester. 1989. Comparison of isozymevariability in peach and almond culti-vars. J. Hered. 77:272-274.

Asai, W.K., W.C. Micke, D.E. Kesterand D. Rough. 1996. The evaluationand selection of current varieties. In:W.C. Micke (Ed.) Almond ProductionManual. Univ. of California ExtensionPubl. 3364, Oakland, CA. pp. 52-60.

Bartolozzi, F., M.L. Warburton, S. Arul-sekar and T.M. Gradziel. 1998. Geneticcharacterization and relatednessamong California almond cultivars andbreeding lines detected by RandomlyAmplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD)analysis. J Amer Soc Hort Sci 123:381-387.

Fenton, C.A.L., D.E. Kester, andA.Kuniyuki. 1988. A model for noninfec-tious bud failure in almond. Phytopatho-logy 78:139-43.

Gradziel, T.M. and D.E. Kester. 1998.Breeding for self-fertility in California al-mond cultivars. Acta Hort 470:109-117.

Hauagge, R., D E. Kester, S. Arulsekar,D.E. Parfitt, and L. Liu. 1987. Isozymevariation among California almond culti-vars: cultivar characterization and ori-gins. Jour. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci.112:693-698.

IPM Manual Group, U.C. Davis. 1985.Integrated Pest Management for al-monds. Pub. 3308. Berkeley: Univ. Ca-lif. Div. of Agric. and Nat. Res.

Jones, R.W., 1969. Selection of inter-compatible almond and root knot nema-tode resistant peach rootstocks as pa-rents for production of hybrid rootstockseed. J.Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 94: 89-91.

Kester, D.E. 1965. Inheritance of timeof bloom in certain progenies of almond.Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 87:214-221.

Kester, D. E. 1968a. Noninfectiousbud-failure, a non-transmissable inheri-ted disorder in almond: I. Pattern ofphenotypic inheritance. Jour. Amer Soc.Hort. Sci. 92-7-15.

Kester, D. E. 1968b. Noninfectiousbud-failure, a non-transmissible inheri-ted disorder in almond. II. Progeny testsfor bud-failure. Jour. Amer. Soc. Hort.Sci. 92:16--28.

Kester. D.E. 1990. The biological andcultural evolution of the almond. I. Con-gress Iberico de Ciencias Horticolas.Assoc. Port. de Hort. And Frut. Soc.Exp. de Cien. Hort. Lisboa, Portugal.I:54-62.

Kester, D.E. and R.A. Asay. 1986. ‘Han-sen 2168’ and ‘Hansen 536’: two newPrunus rootstock clones. HortScience21(2):331-32.

Almond variety trial at San Joaquin Delta College Farm, California


Kester, D.E., R.A. Asay and W.C. Micke.1984. ‘Solano’, ‘Sonora’, and ‘Padre’ al-monds. HortScience 19(1): 138- 139.

Kester, D.E., R.A. Asay and E.F. Serr.1963. The Kapareil almond. Calif.Agric. Expt. Sta. Bul. 798.

Kester, D.E. and Ch. Grasselly. 1987. Al-mond rootstocks. In: Rom, R.C. and R.F.Carlson (eds.). Rootstocks for fruit crops.New York: John Wiley, pp.265-93.

Kester, D.E., and Gradziel T.M. 1996.Almonds. In: Advances in Fruit Bree-ding, J. Janick and J.N. Moore (eds.).Purdue Univ. Press. Pg. 1-97.

Kester, Dale E., Thomas M. Gradziel,and Charles Grasselly. 1991. Almonds(Prunus). In: Genetic resources oftemperate fruit and nut crops. JamesN. Moore and James R. Ballington, Jr.(eds.), International Society for Horticul-tural Science, p. 701-758.

Kester, D.E., Gradziel, T.M. and Micke,W.C. 1994. Identifying pollen incompa-tibility groups in California almond culti-vars. Journal of the American Societyfor Horticultural Science 119:106-109.

Kester, D.E and Hansen. 1966. Root-stock potentialities of F1 hybrids bet-ween peach and almond. Proc. Amer.Soc. Hort. Sci. 89:100-109.

Kester, D.E., P.E. Hansche, P. E., V.Beres and R.N.Asay. 1977. Variancecomponents and heritability of nut andkernel traits in almond. J. Amer. Soc.Hort. Sci. 102:145-148.

Kester, D.E. and R.M. Jones. 1970. No-ninfectious bud failure from breeding pro-grams of almond (Prunus amygdalusBatsch.). Jour. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci.95:492-96.

Kester, D.E., W. C. Micke, D. Rough, D.Morrison, and R. Curtis. 1980. Almondvariety evaluation. Calif. Ag. 34:4-7.

Kester, D.E. and N.W. Ross. 1996.History. In: W.C. Micke (Ed.) AlmondProduction Manual. Univ. of CaliforniaPubl. 3364, Oakland, CA. pp. 1-2.

Kester, D.E. and E. Satori. 1966. Roo-tings of cuttings in populations of peach(Prunus persica L.) Almond (Prunusamygdalus Batsch) and their F1 hybrid.Proc. Am. Soc. Hort. Sci.88:219-223.

Kester, D.E, K.A. Shackel, T.M. Gradziel,W.C. Micke and M. Viveros. 1998. Varia-bility in BF-potential and BF-expressionamong nursery propagules of‘Carmel’ al-mond. Acta Hort. 470:268-272.

Micke, W.C. and D.E. Kester. 1998. Al-mond growing in California. ActaHort.470:21-28.

Micke, W.C., D.E Kester, T.M.Gradziel,J.H. Connell, P.S. Verdegaal, M. Vive-ros, J.T. Yeager and M.A.Thorpe. 1998.Almond Cultivar evaluation using regio-nal trials. Acta Hort.470:91-94.

Serr, E.F., D.E. Kester, M. Wood, andR.W. Jones. 1953. The Davey almond.Calif. Ag. Exp. Sta. Bull. 741.

Tufts, W.P. 1919. Almond pollination.Calif. Agric. Sta. Bull. 306, 32 pp.

Tufts, W.P. and G.V. Philp. 1922. Al-mond pollination. Calif. Agr.Expt. Sta.Bull. 346.

Weinbaum S.A. 1985. Role of naturalself-pollination in self-fruitfulness of al-mond. Scientia Horticulturae 27:295-302.

Wilson, E.E. and R.D. Schein. 1956.The nature and development of nonin-fectious bud failure of almonds. Hilgar-dia 24:515-542.

Wood, M.N. 1925. Almond varieties in theUnited States. U.S.Dept. Bul. 1282: 1 - 142.

Wood, M. N. 1938. Two new varietiesof almond: the Jordanolo and Harpareil.U.S. Dept. of Agr. Circ. 542:1-12.

D. E. Kester and T. M. Gradziel.University of California

Department of Pomology1 Shields Avenue. Davis, CA 95616. USA

ALMOND IMPROVEMENTIN AUSTRALIA

INTRODUCTIONCommercial almond growing in Australiabegan in the state of South Australia, andby the mid to late 1960s, had expandedinto the state of Victoria. Currently, the to-tal area planted to almonds is approxima-tely 4,800 ha. The average size of olderplantings is about 7.5 ha while more re-cent developments average between 20and 48 ha.

The industry is coordinated nationally bythe Australian Almond Grower’s Associa-tion (AAGA) which consists of represen-tatives from each of the growing regions.Its role is to promote the growth and de-velopment of the industry through the im-plementation of an industry-based strate-gic plan and innovative research.

MARKET AND PRODUCTIONAustralia currently produces less than 1%of world production. Nevertheless, the in-dustry is expanding and in 1997, produc-tion reached 7,000 tonnes of kernel. Thisrepresents a growth rate of about 13%per year due largely to improved manage-ment, industry restructuring and increa-sed area planted to almonds. Eventhough the Australian market is characte-rised by relatively low per capita con-sumption, current production is still notsufficient to meet local demand and is su-pplemented with average imports of 1600tonnes of kernel per annum, predominan-tly of smaller grade nuts.

Current Australian production is basedlargely on cultivars developed in Califor-nia. ‘Nonpareil’, ‘Carmel’ and ‘Price’ arethe major cultivars planted, however, lo-cal selections still feature, particularly inthe traditional growing areas. Most of the-se selections have arisen as chance se-edlings from original imports of the ‘Jor-dan’ almond of Spain in the late 1800s(Quinn, 1928) and are well adapted toAustralian conditions. The main rootstoc-ks used are a peach-almond hybrid (‘Ne-maguard’ x ‘Titan’) or ‘Nemaguard’, pro-pagated by micropropagation and seedrespectively. The hybrid rootstock copeswell with relatively shallow soils whichhave calcareous subsoils of high pH, whi-le ‘Nemaguard’ performs well on deeperor heavier clay soils.

Production technology in Australia hasbecome increasingly aligned with thatused in California and the newer holdingshave become highly mechanised in com-parison to the more labour intensive tradi-tional plantings.

ALMOND IMPROVEMENTThe improvement program is a collabora-tive project involving the University ofAdelaide (M.Sedgley, T.Bertozzi,G.Collins, P. Ainsley, C. Channuntapipat)the AAGA (C. Bennett), the South Austra-lian Research and Development Institute(B.Tugwell, A. Granger, E.Alberts) andPrimary Industries and Resources SouthAustralia. The program is supported byfunds from the AAGA, by means of a sta-tutory levy on in-shell and kernel sales,with matching funds from the HorticulturalResearch and Development Corporation.The University has also secured fundingfrom the Australian Research Council.

The improvement program is focussed inthree major areas; breeding and evalua-tion, biotechnology and virology. Each ofthese aspects contributes to the achieve-ment of the industry’s vision of betteradapted varieties, increased productivityand a significant increase in the quality ofproduct for domestic and export markets.

BREEDING AND EVALUATIONThe aims of the breeding program are todevelop improved scion and rootstockcultivars that are adapted to local condi-tions and consumer demands. Self-fertili-ty, increased yield and improved kernelcharacteristics are the major focus of thescion breeding part of the program andtree characteristics, precocity, ease ofharvest and pathogen resistance will be-come increasingly important as higherdensity plantings develop.

Rootstock evaluation trials are currentlyunderway. It is important that rootstockshave good lime tolerance and are resis-


tant to root knot nematode Meloidogynespp. As with other fruit crops, the trend tocloser plantings will necessitate the deve-lopment of dwarfing rootstocks.

Hand hybridisation techniques are usedto produce crosses for evaluation. Theseeds are stratified and then germinatedin the greenhouse before planting in thefield for evaluation. The first series of pro-geny, approximately 1,600 seedlings,have been transplanted to the field andare grown 1 m apart in offset double rowswith a 4 m spacing between each doublerow. We are looking to maximise produc-tion at approximately 5,000 seedlings forevaluation each year.

The hybridisation program provides anexcellent opportunity to evaluate the localgermplasm. To date, most of the informa-tion relates to time of flowering (Rattiganand Hill, 1986), but self-incompatabilityand fingerprinting studies are underway.Analysis of pollen tube growth in excisedpistils using fluorescence microscopy(Sedgley, 1979) and fruit set has alreadysuggested that one of the local selectionsis incompatible with Nonpareil.

BIOTECHNOLOGYMicropropagationClonal propagation of rootstocks is a goalof industry as it imparts reliability of per-formance. Studies investigating the initia-tion, multiplication and rooting methodsfor a number of cultivars are underway.The eventual aim is to apply this metho-dology to new rootstock material origina-ting from the breeding program. Micropro-pagation also provides the foundationmaterial for other aims of the improve-ment program such as transformation andvirus elimination.

TransformationGenetic transformation systems are beingdeveloped to complement the hybridi-sation program. Current efforts are focus-sed on developing suitable regenerationsystems and exploring introgression ofnovel genes.

Germplasm maintenanceScion and rootstock collections are es-sential repositories of genetic material forfuture plantings and for use in selectionand breeding programs. In situ collectionsare expensive to maintain in terms of bothland and labour costs. We have success-fully adapted low temperature in vitro sto-rage methods developed for other Prunusspecies for use with almond scion androotstock cultivars.

VIROLOGYPrunus necrotic ringspot virus and prunedwarf virus are currently the most impor-tant viruses affecting production in Aus-

tralia. The AAGA maintains a central re-pository of mother trees to supply indus-try with the best possible nursery mate-rial. Sanitary conditions are strictly main-tained and as a precautionary measureall trees are deflowered and indexed on aregular basis for both viruses. Testingmethodologies are under review to deter-mine the efficiency of detection of Austra-lian strains of both viruses. Virus elimina-tion procedures also form an importantpart of the program both to clean up exis-ting germplasm sources and to ensurenew material from the breeding programis free from any known viruses.

CONCLUSIONAs a minor player by world standards, thetargetting of niche markets is vital to thecontinuing success of the Australian al-mond industry. For this reason, the im-provement program has a strong industrysupport and focus, and addresses themajor concerns affecting production inAustralia. While broad in concept, this ho-listic approach is possible by combiningthe efforts of a number of research orga-nisations and the integration of new tech-nologies to speed up the process. Earlyselection strategies (Vargas et al., 1998),transformation and the use of marker as-sisted selection will become increasinglyimportant as the program progresses andfurther inputs into these areas are likelyin the near future.

REFERENCES

Quinn, N. R., 1928. Almond culture inSouth Australia. In: Department of Agri-culture South Australia Bulletin 367. p1-24.

Rattigan, K. and Hill, S. J., 1986. Rela-tionship between temperature and flo-wering in almond. Australian Journal ofExperimental Agriculture 26, 399-404.

Sedgley, M., 1979. Inter-varietal pollentube growth and ovule penetration inthe avocado. Euphytica 28, 25-35.

Vargas, F. J., Romero, M. A., Batlle, I.and Clavé, J., 1998. Early selection inalmond progenies. In: X GREMPA mee-ting . Options Méditerranéennes, 33,171-176.

T. Bertozzi1, C. Bennett2 and M. Sedgley1

1 Department of Horticulture,Viticulture and Oenology,

University of Adelaide, PMB 1,Glen Osmond, SA 5064,

Australia

2 Australian Almond GrowersAssociation, Riverland Horticultural Council,

PO Box 52, Berri, SA 5343,Australia

POSSIBILITIES OF BREEDINGALMOND RESISTANT

TO CAPNODE(Capnodis tenebrionis L.)

The capnode (Capnodis tenebrionis L.) isa coleopteran of the Buprestidae mainlyfound in the Mediterranean countriesthough it has been described in other re-gions of Europe, Central Asia and NorthAfrica (Malagón, 1989). It affects all theRosaceae family both wild and cultivatedtree species, including fruit trees of thegenus Prunus (apricot, peach, plum, che-rry and almond). It has also been detec-ted in other fruit trees such as quince,pear, apple, hazel or fig (Malagón 1989).The most important damages are produ-ced by the grubs that getting into theroots destroy the vascular tissues andfrequently cause the death of the tree(Garrido 1984). Despite the importance ofthis pest, there are no reliable statisticson its incidence. According to Garrido(1998, personal communication) millionsof fruit trees have been uprooted in Spainbecause of this phytophagous.

Some research reports show a relation-ship between the resistance to capnodeand the presence of some cyanogenicglycosides in the roots, owing to the factthat the grub does not penetrate in themor dies immediately after getting through(D’hallewin et al. 1990; Malagón and Ga-rrido 1990, Usai and D’hallewin 1990;Mulas 1994). These compounds arefound in variable quantities both in theseeds (mainly amygdalin) and in the ve-getative part (mainly prunasin) of severalPrunus such as the cherry, almond, apri-cot and peach trees.

This relationship between the level of pru-nasin in the roots and the resistance tothe capnode is a factor clearly favourableto face an almond resistance breedingprogram to this insect by obtaining plantswith a high prunasin content in the roots.The development of plants of these cha-racteristics would be conditioned to theavailability of suitable starting plant mate-rial and the knowledge of the trait trans-mission. In this sense, the absence of arelationship between the content in amyg-dalin of the seeds of a given cultivar(sweet or bitter) and the content in pruna-sin in roots and stems of the descendantsobtained from the open pollination of thiscultivar has been determined. In thesame way, a great variability has beenobserved with respect to the resistance ofthe capnode and to the content in pruna-sin among the descendants obtained byopen pollination of bitter kernelled trees.These two facts are not surprising, sincethe seeds from the open pollination of acultivar gives descendants genetically di-


fferent from their genitors and amongthenselves.

In any case, the possible relationship bet-ween the amygdalin content in the fruitsand the presence of prunasin in the rootsof any tree has not been studied. If theprunasin content of the roots was relatedto the amygdalin content of the seeds,most of the problem would be solved, sin-ce the way of inheritance of the bitternessof almond is known (Heppner 1923, 1926;Dicenta y García 1993). Although this re-lationship has not been proved, it couldbe logic taking into account that theamygdalin is a diglucoside formed fromthe prunasin (monoglucoside) by the ac-tion of a gluclosyltransferase (Frehner etal. 1990).

From the point of view of breeding, the re-search for bitter kernelled rootstocks isnot in opposition with other characteris-tics desirable in these plants. In fact,some workers have searched for thesebitter rootstocks with other purposes,such as the increase of the productivity orthe resistance to nematode (Kochba andSpiegel-Roy 1976; Spiegel-Roy andWeinbaum, 1985).

If the content of amygdalin in the seedwas associated with the presence of pru-nasin in the roots, then obtaining bitter-kernelled rootstocks by seed propagationwould be possible since the Spanish culti-vars ‘Atocha’, ‘Desmayo Largueta’ and‘Garrigues’ (Simard et al. 1997), aresome of the most interesting cultivars forobtaining this kind of rootstocks. Thesethree cultivars are heterozygous for thebitter characteristic and so they are ableto produce bitter trees (possibly resistantto the capnode); when crossed betweenthem they will produce 25% of bitter see-dlings or if crossed with other bitter treesthey will produce 50% of bitter seedlings.The production of bitter homozygous des-cendants by crossing two bitter homo-zygous or by self-pollination of a bitterhomozygous self-compatible is possiblealthough in general, the self-pollination isnot a good method of breeding due to thehigh degree of endogamy produced.

Bitter rootstocks by vegetative multiplica-tion could be also obtained. Thus the cul-tivar ‘Garrigues’ has shown a good aptitu-de for vegetative propagation (which isvery low in the almond tree). This goodaptitude of ‘Garrigues’ is inherited by thedescendants, as shown in the case of theGarfi rootstock (‘Garrigues’ op), whichhas already been used as genitor for ob-taining new rootstocks (Felipe et al. 1995;1997). The good behaviour of ‘Garrigues’to transmit this character would make thevegetative multiplication of the materialsobtained from this cultivar easier.

Finally, it could be pointed out that thewidespread use of the almond x peachtree GF677 as a rootstock for almond, notonly in irrigated but also in unirrigated or-chards, could diminish the traditional “na-tural resistance” of the almond tree to thecapnode (using almond seedling roots-tocks) since GF677 contains in its rootsvery low concentrations of prunasin andhas shown to be extremely susceptible tothis insect (Mulas 1994).

LITERATURE CITED

D’hallewin G., Mulas M., Pellizzaro G.,1990. Results of two years observationon bitter almond rootstock selection. EUR14081: Amélioration génétique de deuxespèces de fruits secs méditerranéens:l’amandier et le pistachier: 229-232.

Dicenta F., García J. E., 1993. Inheri-tance of the kernel flavour in almond.Heredity 70:308-312.

Felipe A. J., Gómez-Aparisi J., Socias iCompany R., 1995. ‘Garfi’: una nuevavariedad de almendro (Prunus amygda-lus Batsch) seleccionada por su aptitudal enraizamiento. Resúmenes del VICongreso de la SECH: 102.

Felipe A. J., Gómez-Aparisi J., VargasF. J., Romero M. A., Monastra F., Cabo-ni E., Simeone A. M., Issakidis A., 1997.Obtention et sélection de porte-greffepour l’amandier multipliés par voie vé-gétative. Options Mediterranéennes16:73-92.

Frehner M., Scalet M., Conn E.E., 1990.Pattern of the cyanide-potential in develo-ping fruits. Plant Physiology 94:28-341.

Garrido A., 1984. Bioecología de Cap-nodis tenebrionis L. (Col. Buprestidae)y orientaciones para su control. Bol.Serv. Plagas 10:205-221.

Heppner J., 1923 The factor for bitter-ness in the sweet almond. Genetics8:390-392.

Heppner J., 1926. Further evidence onthe factor for bitterness in the sweet al-mond. Genetics 11:605-606.

Kochba J., Spiegel-Roy P., 1976. Al-nem 1, Alnem 88, Alnem 201 almonds;nematode resistant rootstock seedsource. HortScience 11:270.

Malagón J., 1989. Bioecología de Cap-nodis tenebrionis (L.) (Col.:Buprestidae)e influencia de ciertos factores abióti-cos sobre sus estados inmaduros en elmomento de la eclosión del huevo y supenetración en huéspedes de interésagrícola. PhD Thesis. Universidad Poli-técnica de Valencia. 196 pp.

Malagón J., Garrido A., 1990. Relaciónentre el contenido de glicósidos ciano-génicos y la resistencia a Capnodis te-nebrionis L. en frutales de hueso. Bol.San. Veg. Plagas 16:499-503.

Mulas M., 1994. Almond genetic resour-ces and resistance to Capnodis tene-brionis. Acta Horticulturae 373:41-48.

Simard M. H., Olivier G., Vargas F.J.,Romero M. A., Gomes Pereira J., Maiade Souza R., Isaakidis A., 1997. Selec-tion de semis de Prunus amygdaluscomme porte-greffe de l’amandier. Op-tions Mediterranéennes 16: 53-72.

Spiegel-Roy P., Weinbaum S.A.,1985.Increasing productivity in sweetalmond using selected clones of bitteralmond. Euphytica 34:213-217.

Usai M., D’hallewin G., 1990. Cyanoge-nic glucosides contained in different or-gans of bitter and sweet almond. EUR14081: Amélioration génétique de deuxespèces de fruits secs méditerranéens:l’amandier et le pistachier: 233-236.

F. Dicenta1, A. León1, P. Martínez-Gómez1,A. Lacasa2, A. Soler2, V. Berenguer3,

N. Grané3, M.L. Martín3.

1 Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicadadel Segura (CSIC). Apartado 4195,

30080 Murcia, Spain

2 Centro de Investigación y DesarrolloAgroalimentario. 30150 La Alberca, Murcia.

3 Facultad de Ciencias,Universidad de Alicante. Apartado 99,

03080 Alicante, Spain

QUANTITATIVE TRAITSIN ALMOND FRUITS

INTRODUCTIONAs a difference to other fruit species, nodetailed studies on the transmission ofquantitative traits have been undertakenin almond (Prunus amygdalus Batsch).The information currently available mostlyrefers to the heritability of different traits.Since the calculations have been madeusing crosses from breeding program-mes, which are not too numerous and,moreover, have usually been carried outusing a reduced number of parents, theseheritabilities are sometimes different, de-pending on the breeding programme.Thus, the values obtained can only beconsidered as tentative, although theyare informative about the behaviour of thedifferent traits when advancing from onegeneration to the next.

The traits studied so far are the most im-portant from the agronomical point ofview and refer mostly to the phenologicalstages and to fruit and kernel traits, dueto their marketing importance (Kester etal., 1980). From this point of view it is ne-cessary to consider that quality is a chan-ging concept with time and that sometraits considered very important for com-mercial quality may not be considered assuch in the future. It has been thus consi-


dered that the definition of quality is insame way difficult to explain, even ephe-meral (Janick et al., 1996). Among thefruit traits, the most studied are nut andkernel weight, kernel percentage, numberof blank nuts, percentage of double ker-nels, and some kernel quality aspects asskin colour, rugosity, ...

FRUIT WEIGHTFruit weight in almond is considered asthe in-shell weight, including the kerneland the endocarp, but not the fleshymesocarp which is normally eliminated atharvest. This parameter is not too impor-tant because it fluctuates according to thekernel percentage or the shell hardnessof each cultivar and because the com-mercial part of the fruit is the kernel.

Fruit weight is variable from year to year,mostly depending on the production cha-racteristics of the season, mainly the croplevel, although in almond the crop effecton the fruit size is less important than inother fruit trees (A.J. Felipe, unpublis-hed). However, in spite of this variation,the heritability of this trait is high, beingestablished by Kester et al. (1977) at0.81. Estimations by other researchers(Dicenta et al., 1993; Spiegel-Roy andKochba, 1981) agreed with that value.

KERNEL WEIGHT AND SHAPEKernel weight is also variable from yearto year, even more than fruit weight. Asthe kernel is the commercial part of thealmond nut, its weight and shape are veryimportant, as different sizes and shapesare required for different industrial appli-cations (Berger, 1969). Kernel weight he-ritability was first estimated by Kester etal. (1977) at 0.64 and later estimationsagreed with this value (Dicenta et al.,1993; Spiegel-Roy and Kochba, 1981).

Kernel shape may vary according to the dif-ferent cultivars, since it is maintained as acultivar trait (Gülcan 1985). The linear di-mensions of the kernel, length, width andthickness, have been defined as commer-cial characteristics in almond as well as thelength/width ratio (Kester, 1965; Kester etal., 1980). Grasselly (1972) observed thetransmission of these linear dimensions,but their heritabilities were not estimateduntil Kester et al. (1977): length, 0.77;width, 0.62; thickness, 0.71.

SHELL HARDNESSIn spite of the suggestion by Grasselly(1972) that shell hardness is quantitative-ly inherited, it seems that the regressionanalysis of the kernel percentage doesnot reflect the presence of dominance(Dicenta et al., 1993). However, the diffe-rent parents used in the estimation of theheritability of this trait may have created abias on the evaluation of its transmission

and the estimation of its heritability. Thus,Kester et al. (1977) estimated this herita-bility at 0.55 whereas Spiegel-Roy andKochba (1981) increased this value to0.82. Dicenta et al. (1993) agreed withthe former with a value of 0.56.

DOUBLE KERNELSThe presence of double kernels in al-mond is due to the fertilization of the twoovules in the almond ovary. This is consi-dered a negative trait, lowering fruit quali-ty rating depending on their proportion(Kester et al., 1980). This is due to thefact that when two kernels are producedin the same fruit, they are deformed andmake the commercial processes of crack-ing, size selection and peeling difficult.The percentage of double kernels is acultivar trait but presents large variationsdepending on the sample and the year.While some physiological and climaticreasons have been pointed out as possi-ble causes of these variations, none hasbeen clearly defined. Particularly lowtemperatures before blooming (Egea andBurgos, 1994) or at blooming time (Gras-selly and Gall, 1967; Rikhter, 1969; Spie-gel-Roy and Kochba, 1974) have beenmentioned as promoting higher percenta-ges of double kernels. The earliestblooming flowers seem to be the onesproducing the largest amount of doublekernels (Socias i Company and Felipe,1994). Palasciano et al. (1993) reportedthat an optimized pollination also increa-ses the percentage of double kernels.

Although this is a complex trait needingfurther approaches for its elucidation(Asensio and Socias i Company, 1996) itseems that the ability to produce doublekernels is a quantitative trait that can bepartially inherited; its expression, howe-ver, can be modified by different causes(Socias i Company and Felipe, 1994).Grasselly (1972) first suggested a quanti-tative component on the transmission ofthis trait, and Spiegel-Roy and Kochba(1974) showed that this transmission wascomplicated by environmental influencesmaking its heritability fairly unpredictable.Kester et al. (1977) estimated this herita-bility at 0.51, but with a very high stan-dard deviation. Similar low estimateswere also reported by Vargas and Rome-ro (1988) and Dicenta et al. (1993).However, the utilization of parents with nodouble kernels or with a low percentageof them in the different crosses, as this isconsidered a negative trait, may have dis-torted the estimation of its heritability.

OTHER FRUIT CHARACTERSSeveral other fruit characters have beenstudied, but not so intensively, probablybecause their economic importance ismuch less than fruit weight or the percen-tage of double kernels. Thus Kester et al.

(1977) considered that there was notransmission for hull dehiscence, the ex-tent of hull opening at harvest (0.02), andfor shell colour (0.05). Kernel colourshowed a higher heritability (0.42) butwas highly inconsistent, showing strongenvironmental effects and also being de-pendent in part on the stage of maturity atharvest as well as on the length and type ofstorage. Low heritabilities were also obtai-ned for sealed shell (0.42) and width ofopening (0.21) with large yearly fluctuationsin the cultivars subject to this type of de-fault, including the main Californian cultivar‘Nonpareil’ (Kester and Asay, 1975).

Several kernel traits are conditioned lar-gely by the genotype but with some fluc-tuations in different years. Penetrancemay be involved since only some kernelsare affected and only in some years. The-se traits include crease, a deep depres-sion in the side of some kernels (0.79),shrivelling (0.36), pubescence (0.30) andgrade (0.28). These traits are mostly ra-ted subjectively, so inconsistencies inmeasurement may be a factor limiting thesignificance of their heritability (Kester etal., 1977). Worm damage shows a largegenotype-year interaction, indicating thatdamage is greater to certain genotypeswhenever the pests are found, with a he-ritability of 0.30. However, shell hardnessis a resistance component to worm dama-ge, as hard shells offer a barrier to theentrance of the worm inside the shell.

CONCLUSIONAs the kernel is the commercial part ofthe almond tree production, its characte-ristics have received a detailed quantitati-ve observation, although the most impor-tant kernel aspect, its taste, is a qualita-tive trait (Socias i Company, 1997a).However, for the establishment of valua-ble selection criteria for fruit quality, weneed to deepen our studies on the kernelcomposition and the possible heritabilityof the different components to broadenour knowledge of almond genetics (So-cias i Company, 1997b).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSReview conducted under project AGF98-0211-C03-01 (Spanish CICYT). Com-ments by A.J. Felipe and C. Grasselly arehighly appreciated.

LITERATURE CITED

Asensio, M.C.; Socias i Company, R.1996. Double kernels in almond: anopen question. Nucis 5: 8-9.

Berger, P. 1969. Aptitudes à la transfor-mation industrielle de quelques variétésd’amandes. Bull. Techn. Inf. 241: 577-580.


SEASONAL CHANGES IN LEAFWATER LOSSES IN EIGHT

ALMOND CULTIVARS

INTRODUCTIONIn Spain almond trees have been tradi-tionally grown in dry farming (Planes,1994). Because of the importance of al-

mond production in Spain effort is beingmade to develop two complementary li-nes of work: improving cultivars bymeans of plant breeding and genetics(Arús et al. 1994a, 1994b; Vargas andRomero, 1994) and improving orchardmanagement by reduced drip irrigation(RDI) techniques (Chalmers, 1986; Giro-na et al. 1993; Torrecillas et al. 1988). Abetter understanding of tree physiologyand plant adaptation to drought stressmay help to enhance the results, which-ever the chosen approach (de Herraldeet al. 1997a; 1997b). Present work com-pares leaf characteristics related toplant water relations (cuticular transpira-tion rates, some specific leaf weights,relative water content at turgor loss po-int and turgid weight to dry weight rate).The main objective was the study of cul-tivar response to drought stress andtheir seasonal patterns under field con-ditions.

MATERIALS AND METHODSOne year old almond trees (Prunusamygdalus Batsch, syn. P. dulcis (Mi-ller) D.A. Webb) of 8 cultivars ‘DesmayoLargueta’ (DLL), ‘Falsa Barese’ (FBA),‘Garrigues’ (GAR), ‘Lauranne’ (LAU),

Dicenta, F.; García, J.E.; Carbonell,E.A. 1993. Heritability of fruit charactersin almond. J. Hort. Sci. 68: 121-126.

Egea, J.; Burgos, L. 1995. Double ker-neled fruits in almond (Prunus dulcisMill.) as related to pre-blossom tempe-ratures. Ann. Appl. Biol. 126: 163-168.

Grasselly, C. 1972. L’amandier: carac-tères morphologiques et physiologiquesdes variétés, modalité de leurs transmis-sions chez les hybrides de première gé-nération. Thesis Univ. Bordeaux, 156 pp.

Grasselly, C.; Gall, H. 1967. Étude sur lapossibilité de combinaison de quelquescaractères agronomiques chez l’aman-dier Cristomorto hybridé par trois autresvariétés. Ann. Amélior. Plant. 17: 83-91.

Gülcan, R. 1985. Almond descriptors(revised). IBPGR, Rome, 30 pp.

Janick, J.; Cummins, J.N.; Brown, S.K.;Hemmat, M. 1996. Apples. In: Janick,J.; Moore, J.N. (eds): Fruit breeding,vol. I. John Wiley & Sons, New York,pp. 1-77.

Kester, D.E. 1965. Inheritance of timeof bloom in certain progenies of almond.Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 87: 214-221.

Kester, D.E.; Asay, R. 1975. Almonds.In: Janick, J.; Moore, J.N. (eds): Advan-ces in fruit breeding. Purdue UnivPress, West Lafayette, Indiana, pp.387-419.

Kester, D.E.; Hansche, P.E.; Beres, W.;Asay, R.N. 1977. Variance componentsand heritability of nut and kernel traits inalmond. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 102:264-266.

Kester, D.E.; Micke, W.C.; Rough, D,;Morrison, D.; Curtis, R. 1980. Almondvariety evaluation. Calif. Agric. 34(10):4-7.

Palasciano, M.; Godini, A.; De Palma,L. 1994. Optimized self-pollination andproduction of double kernels in almond.Acta Hort. 373: 215-217

Rikhter, A.A. 1969. Ways and methodsof almond breeding (in Russian). Tr.Gos. Nikit. Bot. Sad 43: 81-94.

Socias i Company, R. 1997a. Qualita-tive traits in almond. Nucis 6: 6-9.

Socias i Company, R. 1997b. Fruit treegenetics at a turning point: the almondexample. Theor. Appl. Genet. 96: 588-601.

Socias i Company, R.; Felipe, A.J.1994. Flower quality and fruit quality inalmond: conflicting objectives? In: Sch-midt, H.; Kellerhals, M. (eds): Progressin temperate fruit breeding, Kluwer Aca-demic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 245-248.

Spiegel-Roy, P.; Kochba, J. 1974. Theinheritance of bitter and double kernelcharacters in the almond (Prunus amyg-dalus Batsch). Z. Pflanzenzücht. 71:319-329.

Spiegel-Roy, P.; Kochba, J. 1981. Inhe-ritance of nut and kernel traits in al-mond (Prunus amygdalus Batsch).Euphytica 30: 167-174.

Vargas, F.J.; Romero, M.A. 1988. Com-paración entre descendencias de cru-zamientos intervarietales de almendroen relación con la época de floración yla calidad del fruto. Rap. EUR 11557:59-72.

R. Socias i CompanyUnidad de Fruticultura, SIA-DGA,

Apartado 72750080 Zaragoza, Spain

Almond cultivar drought testing trial at IRTA Cabrils, Spain


‘Marcona’ (MAR), ‘Masbovera’ (MBO),‘Non Pareil’ (NPA) and ‘’Ramillete’(RAM) onto GF-677 rootstocks weregrown at IRTA-Cabrils, north-easternSpain (41º 25’ N, 2º 23’ E). Twenty treesof each cultivar were grown in 16.5 lpots with peat (Floratoff) and perlite(Europerl A-13) (2:1, v/v) as substrate,with a tree spacing of 0.8 m x 1.25 m.Trees were daily drip irrigated. Wateramount depends on evaporative de-mand. From February to July plantswere fertilised with Nitrofoska azul es-pecial® (BASF) (12+12+17s+2) and fromJuly to the end of the growing seasonwith a nutrient solution (1:0.5:1.5(N:P:K; pH =6.5)) added to irrigationwater. Weather conditions during theyear are expressed on Figure 2. The ex-perimental design was factorial: 8 culti-vars x 2 sampling times.

In May and September, five south orien-ted leaves of each cultivar wererandomly selected and sampled. Theywere removed and taken immediately tothe laboratory. Then the petioles wererecut under water and leaves were re-hydrated to saturation (24 hours/dark-ness/4ºC). Water losses were gravime-trically measured in balance (ScaltecSB31 (Scaltec Instruments, Germany)with an accuracy of tenth of milligramduring 5.5 hours. Leaves were dried andreweighed. Relative water content(RWC%) and transpiration rates (TR)were calculated. For each variety andmonth RWC versus TR curves were cal-culated and maximum transpiration rate,cuticular transpiration rate (TRC) andRWC at the beginning of the cuticularstage were determined (RWCtlp).

Four more leaves of each cultivar weresampled at the same time. Leaf areawas measured with an image analyser(DIAS, Delta-T Devices, UK). The sameleaves were dried and weighed, in orderto calculate the specific leaf weight(SLW) (Savé et al., 1993).

The statistical analysis of data conduc-ted using The SAS System for Windows6.12 (SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC 27513,USA). Analysis of variance was usedwhen appropriate. Mean separationswere made by Duncan’s multiple rangetest, P≤ 0.05.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONCuticular transpiration rates (TRC) areshown in figure 1. TRc values were hig-her in May than in September, whereasdifferences among varieties were notsignificant but they can be classified ac-cording Duncan’s test in 3 groups: lowcuticular transpiration (‘Masbovera’,‘Non Pareil’ and ‘Marcona’), intermedia-

te (‘Falsa Barese’, ‘Lauranne’ and ‘Ra-millete’) and high cuticular transpiration(‘Garrigues’ and ‘Desmayo Largueta’).Multifactorial analysis of varianceshowed that the interaction betweenmonth and cultivar was significant andimportant in the cultivars with higherTRC (‘Garrigues’ and ‘Desmayo Largue-ta’), which decreased significantly theirTRC. Decreases in TRC rates are consi-dered as an avoidance mechanism infront of water deficits. The seasonal de-crease in TRC is normal because of theincrease in evaporative demand alongthe summer (Biel, 1996), in spite of thefact that plants were well irrigated. Va-lues of TRC were slightly higher thanthose reported by Larcher (1995) forPrunoidea temperate fruit trees, beingmore similar to those shown by sclero-phyll leaves. Similar values to thosefound in May had been described in kiwi

‘Masbovera’ potted tree at the drought testing trial

leaves (Actinidia deliciosa) (Savé andAdillón, 1990). Specific leaf weight(SLW) (Figure 2) only was differentbetween May and September but notamong cultivars. Castel and Fereres(1982) reported similar control values ofSLW on leaves of ‘Non Pareil’ but the in-creases in SLW were lower. Relativewater content at turgor loss point (RWCtlp)showed no differences in time or culti-var. RWCtlp values in almond leaves ran-ged from 64% to 88%. As is shown in Fi-gure 3, most of the varieties showed litt-le seasonal increase in RWCtlp, which isin agreement to previous reports (Ruiz-Sánchez et al., 1993). High RWCtlp va-lues are an avoidance mechanism, re-ducing the water transpiration losses(Robichaux, 1984). Turgid weight to dryweight rate (TW/DW) decreased fromMay to September in all the varieties(Figure 4). ‘Marcona’ and ‘Garrigues’


showed the highest TW/DW and weresignificantly different from ‘Masbovera’,which showed the lowest TW/DW. Inwater stressed plants, TW/DW usuallydecreases. This could be due to plantage, cell size decrease and/or thicke-ning of cell walls (Cutler et al. 1977;Myers and Neales, 1986; Jensen andHenson, 1989). According to Sobradoand Turner (1983), the decrease in TW/DW can be due to a reduction in cellsize and related to a decrease in osmo-tic potential at turgor loss point, being amechanism to tolerate water stress. Thelowest TW/DW ratio gives the bestadaptation to water deficit conditions.

CONCLUDING REMARKSAlmond trees develop seasonal avoi-dance mechanisms in order to reducewater losses through the leaves: lowercuticular transpiration rates, higherRWCtlp and lower TW/DW ratio. Cultivardifferences were found in TRC and TW/DW. Leaves of each cultivar have diffe-rent performances ranging from ‘Masbo-vera’, that has more drought avoidingmechanisms to ‘Garrigues’ in the oppo-site end. ‘Marcona’ is a medium avoider,having low TRC but high TW/DW ratio.This information about morphologicalchanges, adaptations to environment,can provide interesting information forbreeders and growers. It could be usedin order to improve the use of cultivarsaccording to climate conditions and toplan the irrigation schedule in agree-ment to cultivar characteristics. In addi-tion breeders can use the information todesign crosses and use relevant para-meters for selecting seedlings.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis work has been granted by CICYT(AGF96-0520) and by an IRTA Resear-cher training Grant.

REFERENCES

Arús, P., C. Olarte, M.A. Romero andF.J. Vargas. 1994a. Linkage analysisof ten isoenzyme genes in F1 segrega-ting almond progenies. J. Amer. Soc.Hort. Sci., 119 (2): 339-344.

Arús, P., R. Messeguer, M. Viruel,K.R. Tobutt, D. Dirlewanger, F. Santi,R. Quarta and E. Ritter. 1994b. TheEuropean Prunus mapping project.Euphytica, 77: 97-100.

Biel, C. 1996. Avaluació ecofisiològica del’arrel micorrizada de Rosmarinus offici-nalis L. en relació a factors limitants delclima mediterrani per la seva potencialutilització en la revegetació de terrenysmarginals. PhD Thesis. ETSEAF (UdL).

Castel, J.R. and E. Fereres. 1982.Responses of young almond trees totwo drought periods in the field. J.Hort. Sci. 57 (2): 562-569.

May

September

MBO MAR RAM NPA FBA LAU DLL GAR

0,005

0,004

0,003

0,002

0,001

0,000

Cuticular transpiration rate in leavesof 8 almond cultivars

TRc

(g H

2O*g

DW

1 * m

in1 )

May

September

GAR MBO MAR NPA LAU RAM DLL FBA

Specific leaf weight in 8 cultivars of almondin may and september 1998

SLW

(gD

W*c

m2 )

0,0160,0140,0120,0100,0080,0060,0040,0020,000

Figure 1. - Cuticular transpiration rate in 8 almond cultivars in Mayand September

Figure 2. - Specific leaf weight in 8 almond cultivars in May andSeptember

May

SeptemberRelative water content % at turgor loss point

100

80

60

40

20

0

RW

C (%

)

DLL FBA GAR LAU MAR MBO NPA RAM

Figure 3. - Relative Water content at turgor loss point rate in 8 almondcultivars in May and September

Figure 4. - Turgid weight to dry weight rate in 8 almond cultivars in Mayand September

DLL FBA GAR LAU MAR MBO NPA RAM

6.00

5.00

4.00

3.00

2.00

1.00

0.00

TW/D

W

May

SeptemberTurgid weight to dry weight in leaves of eightalmond cultivars

a

a aba a a

a

aa

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ab

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a a a a a a a aaaa

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ALMOND TREE CULTIVATIONIN THE TRÁS-OS-MONTES

REGION, PORTUGAL:AN OVERVIEW OF THECURRENT SITUATION

The almond producing regions of Portu-gal are mainly Trás-os-Montes and theAlgarve. Of the producing almond farmsin Portugal, almost 60% are found inTrás-os-Montes (22,747 ha in 1997), ofwhich more than 80% are located in theUpper Douro River Valley (Vale do DouroSuperior) and which produce approxima-tely 45% of the total Portuguese almondcrop. The region’s edaphic and climaticconditions made for notable growth in thecultivation of almond trees, because theywere planted in locations where practica-lly no other crops could be grown. Tradi-tional almond farms are marked by manyproblems which result in low productivity,only about 100 to 120 kg of shelled al-monds per hectare. Among these farms,a number of serious problems can be no-ted, including, but not limited to: 1) thepresence of an important number of culti-vars which blossom when the risk of latefrosts is high 2) the continuing lack ofadequate pollinators; 3) the almost com-plete lack of preparation of the plots and

care in the planting of the almond trees;4) the insufficient providing of nutrients.In general, traditional Portuguese almondtrees are located on arid plots of poor soilquality. There is no doubt that the al-mond tree’s resistance to drought hasbeen, and will continue to be, one of themain reasons for the high interest on itand also for the useful development ofthe dry areas of this region. However, itbears repeating that the yield of theregion’s almond farms will improve onlywith the improvement of the conditionsunder which farming is conducted.

In the last few years in Trás-os-Montes,large investments in more promising, mo-dern planting areas have been made, of-ten supported by European Communityinvestments or through individual efforts,which have resulted in the planting ofmore than 1200 ha of almond trees.Thus, it behoves us to determine what theproductive potential of the region is. Themodern almond farm, planted with thesame care and preparations afforded tofruit orchards, can reach annual produc-tion levels of 800 to 900 kg of shelled al-monds per hectare, even on dry plots. Inthe case of irrigated plots, the productionlevels in the Trás-os-Montes region canbe as high as 1200 to 1400 kg of shelledalmonds per hectare, similar to those le-vels reached on modern almond farms ofSpain and California. Until recently, themost widely produced and marketed hardshelled cultivars, differed only accordingto the zone of production. The utilizationof a large number of cultivars, not alwaysthe most easily produced, nor having thelargest kernels, was common on Portu-guese almond farms. Recently, however,foreign cultivars have been introducedthat appear to combine sufficient condi-tions to be used for new orchards. Suchis the case with ‘Ferragnès’, ‘Ferrastar’and ‘Ferraduel’ (of French origin) or ‘Mas-bovera’ ‘Glorieta’ and ‘Francolí’ (of Spa-nish origin), which show late blooming,some resistance to disease, high andsteady productivity. In 1991, a project onfertilization started, with different treat-ments, in which the cultivars were ‘Fe-rragnes’, ‘Ferrastar’ and ‘Ferraduel’. Thedata showed that there are no significantdifferences between the types of treat-ment considered over the six years of thestudy. However, the 1995 production le-vel for dry plots was 3.6 metric tons ofunshelled nuts per hectare, which de-monstrates the performance of the culti-vars used.

Currently, new almond planting shouldonly be considered if the cultivars usedare among the six considered before, notonly for their high production, but also fortheir good agronomic behaviour and thequality of their almonds. A modern plan-

Chalmers, D.J., G. Burge, P.H. Jerieand P.D. Mitchell. 1986. The mecha-nism of regulation of ‘Bartlett’ pearfruit and vegetative growth by irriga-tion withholding and regulated deficitirrigation. Aust. J. Plant Physiol.15:633-639.

Cutler, J.M., D.W. Rains and R.Loomis. 1997. Role of changes in solu-te concentration in maintaining favou-rable water balance in field grow cot-ton. Agronomie J., 69: 773-779.

de Herralde, F., C. Biel, M.Cohen,I.Batlle, and R. Savé. 1997a. Vulnera-bility curves to embolism and droughtresistance in two almond tree culti-vars. Nucis, 6: 14-16.

de Herralde, F., C. Biel, M.Cohen,I.Batlle, and R. Savé. 1997b. Conductivi-dad hidráulica y resistencia a la sequíaen variedades cultivadas de almendro.Abstract book from XII Reunión Nacionalde la Sociedad Española de FisiologíaVegetal y V Congreso Hispano-Luso deFisiología Vegetal. I.S.B.N.: 84-89802-12-2. pp: 119-120.

Girona, J., J. Marsal, M.Cohen, M.Mata and C. Miravete. 1993 Physiolo-gical growth and yield responses of al-mond (Prunus dulcis L.) to differentirrigation regimes. Acta Horticulturae335: 389-398.

Jensen, C.R. and I.E. Henson. 1989.Leaf water relations characteristics ofLupinus angustifolius and L. cosentinii.Oecologia, 82,(1): 114-121.

Larcher, W. 1995. Physiological plantecology. 3rd ed. Springer-Verlag.

Myers, B.A. and T.F. Neales. 1986. Os-motic adjustment induced by drought inseedlings of Eucaliptus species. Aus-tral. J. Plant Physiol., 13: 597-603.

Planes, J. 1994. Relaciones agua-planta del almendro (Amygdalus com-munis L.) en condiciones hídricas ad-versas. PhD Dissertation. University ofMurcia. 178 pp.

Robichaux, R.H., K.E. Holsinger andS.R. Morse. 1986. Turgor maintenancein Hawaiian Dubautia species: the roleof variation in tissue osmotic and elas-tic properties, p. 353-380. In: T.T. Gi-vnish (ed.) On the economy of plantform and function. Cambridge Univ.Press. Cambridge, U.K.

Ruíz-Sánchez, M.C., Sánchez-Blanco,M.J., Planes, J., Alarcón, J.J., Torreci-llas, A. 1993. Seasonal changes in leafwater potential components in two al-mond cultivars. Journal of AgriculturalScience 120: 347-351.

Savé, R. and J. Adillón. 1990. Compa-rison between plant water relations ofin vitro plants and rooted cuttings ofkiwifruit. Acta Horticulturae, 292:193-197.

Savé, R., J. Peñuelas, O.Marfà andL.Serrano. 1993. Changes in tissueosmotic and elastic properties and ca-

nopy structure of strawberries undermild water stress. Hort Science

Sobrado, M.A. and T.C. Turner. 1983.Influence of water deficits on the waterrelations characteristics and producti-vity of wild and cultivated sunflowers.Aust. J. Plant Physiol., 10: 195-203.

Torrecillas, A.; Ruíz-Sánchez, M.C.;del Amor, F.; León, A.; Abrisqueta,J.M. 1988. Leaf water potential andleaf conductance during the growingseason in almond trees under differentirrigation regimes. Biologia Plantarum30(5): 327-332.

Vargas F.J. and M.A. Romero. 1994.‘Masbovera’, ‘Glorieta’ and ‘Francolí’,three new almond varieties from IRTA.Acta Horticulturae 373: 75-82.

F.1de Herralde, C1. Biel, I.2 Batlle,and R.1 Savé,

Institut de Recerca i TecnologiaAgroalimentàries, IRTA.

1Dept. Tecnologia Hortícola, Centre deCabrils, Ctra de Cabrils s/n. 08348. Cabrils.

Barcelona, Spain2Dept. Arboricultura Mediterrània. Centre de

Mas Bové. Apt. 415, 43280 Reus.Tarragona, Spain


ting also demands that the referred culti-vars be grafted using appropriate roots-tocks for the soil conditions in which theywill be cultivated. The rootstock most tra-ditionally used in the cultivation of almondtrees, not only in Trás-os-Montes but any-where else, is from bitter almonds. Themain advantage of this rootstock in rela-tion to others is its resistance to drought.However, thanks to efforts at improve-ment, other rootstocks have begun to beused. One of them, the ‘GF-677’ (peachx almond hybrid), is noted for attaining si-milar resistance to that of the bitter al-mond, with the advantages of not produ-cing nuts similar to those of the sweet va-riety, of making it possible to have uni-form orchards, and of having good vege-tative development, resulting from its hy-brid origin. In an effort to test tree’s resis-tance to drought, in the conditions of adry plot of the region, a study was carriedout by the Department of Agriculture ofTrás-os-Montes DRATM (Direcção Re-gional de Agricultura de Trás-os-Montes)in 1994, in collaboration with the Vegeta-ble Physiology laboratory of the NationalAgronomic Station (Estação AgronómicaNacional, EAN/INIA). An experimentalorchard was established in the productionarea comparing five almond cultivarsgrafted on two rootstocks: ‘Garrigues’seedling (almond) and ‘GF-677’. The useof the ‘GF-677’ led to greater results forthe photosynthetic rate and hydric poten-tial, relative to the results of plants graf-ted onto the ‘Garrigues’ seedlings. Thesedata reinforces even more the suitabilityof the ‘GF-677’ rootstock to conditions inPortugal.

Due to the importance of almond growingin Trás-os-Montes, DRATM has focusedits attention to it in the form of studies andsupport for farmers. In 1996, DRATMand UTAD (Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e o Alto Douro - University ofTrás-os-Montes and the Upper Douro)presented a joint project to the SupportProgram for the Modernization of Agricul-ture and Forests – Research, Experimen-tation and Demonstration (PAMAF-IED –Programa de Apoio à Modernização daAgricultura e Florestas – Investigação,Experimentação e Demonstração). Theproject “Contribution for the Developmentof Almond Farming in the Upper DouroRiver Valley.” Its main goals are:● To create an inventory of the Portugue-se and foreign crops already planted inthe region, thus giving continuity to theestablishment of a field that will serve asa genetic repository for DRATM (at theCentro Experimental da Terra Quente);● To characterize the different crops ba-sed on agronomic, physiological, biome-trical and isoenzymatic parameters;● To refine the techniques of vegetativemultiplication of rootstocks (namely ‘GF-

677’) for the region’s conditions, with thegoal of making possible a mass produc-tion of plants;● To provide continuity to the trial use offertilizers with nitrogen and phosphorus,nutrients lacking on Portuguese almondfarms;● To conduct a comparative study of theproduction of the region’s main crops;● To conduct studies to characterize pro-ductivity, using parameters related to thephotosynthesis/transpiration relationship,in watered and unwatered plants.The diffusion of the study’s results will bemade during the three years of theproject’s duration, through site visits tothe demonstration areas by techniciansand farmers to observe the orchard’s con-ditions, through varied periodicals, andthrough the organization of technicalfieldtrips in the last quarter of 1999.

The importance of almond production inPortugal, in relation to the total for all dryfruits, is significant on average, 40%.Thus, it becomes increasingly importantthat the appropriate agencies conductstudies and experiments, and that theirresults reach almond producers, in orderto improve their production and the profi-tability of the practice. Only in this waywe can refine the best techniques of pro-duction, maintaining the practice and itsassociated industries in Trás-os-Montes,and developing wealth-generating activi-ties that complement agriculture. Ultima-tely, this should contribute to maintain ru-ral population of the region. The future ofalmond growing in Trás-os-Montes canbe regarded with optimism, as long as itsalmonds are priced competitively compa-ring to other almond-producing countries.To this end, producers should:● Choose from their dry plots the bestareas for growing● Treat the soil, with rippling and a properamount of fertilizer● Use specific rootstocks and spacing oftrees in accordance with soil fertility level● Choose cultivars which have shown tobe more productive and have a greatershell/nut yield, and considering the ne-cessity of pollinization● Mechanize harvesting for new almondtree fields to be planted, in order to signi-ficantly reduce production costs● Form associations of almond growers,in order to promote the product● Seek the necessary support and assis-tance from the agencies and institutionslinked to the practice of almond growingTo conclude: given the reasons for thelow productivity of traditional Portuguesealmond farms, and the undeniable valueof almond production for the region, envi-ronmentally, landscaping (roads with blo-ssoming trees), and socially, togetherwith the apt natural conditions and thepotential for production of modern almond

farms, we consider almond farming to bea strategically valuable activity for Trás-os-Montes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThanks are due to M. A. Lokensgard fortranslating the manuscript.

REFERENCES

M.C. Matos, A. A. Matos, A. Mantas, V.Cordeiro and J. B. Vieira da Silva, 1997.Photosynthesis and water relations ofalmond tree cultivars grafted on tworootstocks. Photyosynthetica 34 (2):249-256.

V. CordeiroDirecção Regional de Agricultura

de Trás-os-MontesDivisão de Produção Agrícola

Centro Experimental da Terra QuenteQuinta do Valongo,

5370 Mirandela, Portugal

INCIDENCE OF APPLEMOSAIC VIRUS (ApMV)

DISEASE ON HAZELNUT(Corylus avellana L.)IN SPAIN, AND ITS

EFFECTS ON YIELD

Hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) is growncommercially mainly in Turkey, Italy,Spain and the USA (Alvisi, 1994). Spainis the fourth largest producing country inthe world and nearly 85% of the cultivatedarea (29000 ha) are located at Tarragonaprovince in the north-east. In this area,hazelnut crop has been decreasing re-cently due to low productivity. Apart fromsoil and climate, one of the reasons oflow yield could be the presence of themosaic disease of hazelnut, caused bythe apple mosaic ilarvirus (ApMV). Hazel-nut mosaic symptoms in this area werefirst noticed by Tasias (1975). Before, si-milar symptoms had been described inBulgaria by Atanasoff (1935) and in Italy,in 1957 in Apulia by Scarmuzzi and Cife-rri, and later in Campania. The Apple mo-saic ilarvirus (ApMV) was detected byELISA test on hazelnut trees showingmosaic symptoms on leaves (Sweet andBarbara, 1979) or ring and line pattern(Ragozzino, 1980).

The incidence of ApMV on ‘Negret’ hazel-nut in different growing areas of Cataloniawas studied. ‘Negret’ is the main Spanishcultivar representing about 80% of thehazelnut trees planted (Tous et al., 1997).


Hazelnut ‘Negret’ orchard at Constantí, Tarragona, Spain

Some 140 orchards were surveyed in dif-ferent areas of Tarragona and Gironaprovinces and in all of them mosaicsymptoms on leaves during spring wereobserved. ApMV was detected by ELISAtest in all collected samples except a fewexceptions (probably due to erratic distri-bution of virus). It allows to conclude thatmost ‘Negret’ trees are infected.

In 1989 a study to know the effect ofApMV in hazelnut was started at IRTA-Mas Bové (Aramburu and Rovira, 1998).‘Negret’ hazelnut trees free of ApMV, clo-nally propagated, were planted in an or-chard trial, with ‘Segorbe’ cultivar as polli-nator. For the trial eighty ‘Negret’ treeswere used. Forty of them, chosen at ran-dom, were infected by grafting two piecesof bark taken from an ApMV infected ha-zel tree in the following spring. Virus in-fection in inoculated trees was tested oneyear after inoculation using ELISA test,and natural spread of ApMV from infectedto healthy trees was not observed sevenyears after orchard planting. The effect ofApMV in hazelnut was assessed annuallyby comparisons of vigour (from 1989 to1996), yield and some nut characteristics(from 1993-1996) from healthy and infec-ted trees.

Differences in vigour between healthy andinfected trees were not detected, but therewas a great variability in yield. Productionof infected trees was the lowest in eachyear of the trial. Cumulative yield duringfour years was 2.25 kg of nuts per infectedtree and 4 kg per healthy tree, thus hazel-nut production of virus free ‘Negret’ treeswas increased by 77% with respect to theyield of ApMV infected trees. The decreaseof production of infected trees was not dueto a less kernel yield caused by a decreaseof kernel weight, that was around 50% ofnut weight in both treatments; this differen-ce was mainly due to infected trees lost23% of necrosed nuts instead of 2% of the-se nuts in healthy trees. The cumulativeyield of infected hazelnut trees was stronglyreduced if it is compared with the lowereffects of ApMV in apple-yield reduction ofonly about 30% (Chamberlain et al., 1971).

A small increase in the number of nutswith brown spots in kernel cavity was ob-served in healthy trees, but no differen-ces in the relative number of blank nutsand fatty acid kernel composition werefound. The contrast between the highestyield and the poorest quality (brownspots in kernel cavity) has been previous-ly recorded (Tous et al., 1997) althoughthe causes of this relationship are notwell understood.

This experiment shows a strong effect ofApMV on infected ‘Negret’ hazelnut trees,however few reports of virus effect on ha-

zelnut are reported. Márenaux and Ger-main (1975) found a 5-10% reduction inyield comparing heavily infected ‘Negret’trees with less infected ‘Negret’ trees.Probably the lack of studies regardingthis disease is due to symptoms are ob-served only on some leaves in spring,when temperatures are still moderate. Inaddition, most of the hazelnut orchardsin Tarragona area are ApMV infected,which makes it more difficult to determinethe insidious effect of ApMV on yield bydirect comparison with healthy trees. Thereason for extensive ApMv infection se-ems not to be the natural diffusion as ha-zelnut has been traditionally propagatedby growers using suckers without any sa-nitary control. Currently the yield decrea-se of ‘Negret’ cultivar by ApMV infectionis one of the main reasons for unprofita-ble hazel production in Tarragona as it re-duces the crop load of the orchard. This

work shows clearly the need to use virusfree certified plants to guarantee healthysanitary status, avoiding the uncertaintyin yield and assuring more competitiveproductions in new orchards. In this sen-se, a programme to certify hazelnut virusfree plants has been recently launched.

REFERENCES

Alvisi, F. 1994. Current situation andoutlook for hazelnut production. ActaHorticulturae, 351-157.

Aramburu, J.; Rovira, M. 1998. Theeffects of apple mosaic ilarvirus (ApMV)on hazelut (Corylus avellana L.). Jour-nal of Horticultural Science & Biotech-nology, 73 (1):97-101.

Atanassof, D. 1935. Old and new virusdiseases of trees and shrubs. Phytopa-thologische Zeitschrift, 8:197-223.

Symptoms of ApMV on hazelnut ‘Negret’ leaves


WALNUT (J. regia L.)GENETIC RESOURCES

IN EUROPE

INTRODUCTIONIntraspecific genetic variation is certainlya crucial issue to consider in any mana-gement programme about conservationand sustainable development of a spe-cies. Even widespread species, whichapparently could not be considered “en-dangered”, should be preserved if theirintraspecific genetic variability is at risk.Most of the agriculture and multipurposetree species are under intensive cultiva-tion through vegetative propagation of areduced number of selected genotypes.

Because of nut and wood productions,Persian walnut (J. regia L.) has been cul-tivated in Europe since ancient time, butits difficult vegetative propagation hasallowed to save an important part of itswild gene pool. There are still many wal-nut seedling trees growing around Europe

(Bottema, 1980; Leslie and McGranahan,1988; Germain et al, 1997).

In the framework of the AIR3 Walnut Eu-ropean Project CT22-0142, studies to de-tect and quantify genetic resources stillexisting within European populations ofwalnut tree have been carried out. Resul-ts of this work may promote a correct ma-nagement of European J. regia resourcesboth by increasing the range of genoty-pes used for breeding programmes andby encouraging actions to conserve insitu and ex situ this germplasm.

MATERIALS AND METHODSSixty-two naturalized populations of wildwalnut trees from different European areaswere analyzed. Among these, 27 were stu-died and chosen to be representative of theEuropean genetic resources (Fig. 1).

Samples analyzed (a mean of 34,4 indivi-duals per population) were dormant budstaken in early spring and stored at -80ºCuntil their electrophoretic enzyme analy-sis. Horizontal starch gel electrophoresiswas used to analyse 9 enzyme systems:aromatic alcohol dehydrogenase (AADH.EC 1.1.1.90), diaphorase (DIA. EC1.6.4.3), esterase (EST. EC 3.1.1.1), glu-tamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT.EC 2.6.1.1), mannose phosphate isome-rase (MPI. EC 5.3.1.8), phosphoglucoseisomerase (PGI. EC 5.3.1.9), phospho-glucomutase (PGM. EC 2.7.5.1), shikima-te dehydrogenase (SDH. EC 1.1.1.25)and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase(6-PGD. EC 1.1.1.44), according Arulse-kar and Parfitt (1986) general procedu-

res. Isozyme analysis was carried out aspreviously reported by Aletà et al. (1991)and Malvolti et al. (1993). Fifteen enzy-matic loci were tested on the base of thegenetic control established by Arulsekaret al. (1986), Aletà et al. (1993) and Mal-volti et al. (1993 and 1995).

Intrapopulation genetic variability was as-sessed by the following parameters:mean number of alleles per locus (A),percentage of polymorphic loci (P) andobserved and expected heterozigosity(Ho and He respectively). The genetic va-riability within and among populationswas estimated by F-statistics followingWeir and Cockerham (1984) and conside-ring the deviation of genotype frequen-cies from Hardy-Weinberg expectationover all populations (F) and within singlepopulation (f) and the level of differentia-tion among populations (q). Confidenceinterval for each index was calculatedbootstrapping alleles several times overall loci per population (Weir,1990). A ma-trix of unbiased mean genetic distanceswas computed using the algorithm propo-sed by Nei (1978) and then used fordrawing the UPGMA dendrogram.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONSeven loci, of the fifteen initially conside-red, were used in the study: Skdh-1,Skdh-2, Dia-1, Dia-3, Mpi-1, Pgm-1 and6Pgd-2. All of them are polymorphic andthey usually show a clear zymogram. Thenumber of alleles identified per loci were:2 in Skdh-1, Skdh-2, Dia-1 and Dia-3; 3 inMpi-1, Pgm-1 and 6Pgd-2. Rare alleleswere detected mainly in the five Georgianaccessions in Mpi-1.

Splendid J. regia selection in Galicia, Spain

Chamberlain, E.E.; Atkinson, J.D.; Hun-ter, J.A.; Wood, J.A. 1971. Effect ofapple mosaic virus on growth and crop-ping of ‘Freyberg’ apple trees. NewZealand Journal of Agricultural Resear-ch, 14:314-322.

Márenaux, C.; Germain, E. 1975. LaMosaïque du noisetier. Annals of Phyto-pathol., 7:133-145.

Ragozzino, A. 1980. Hazel Mosaic.Acta Horticulturae, 94:375-378.

Scaramuzzi, G. ;Ciferri, R. 1957. Unanuova virosis: la maculatura lineare delNocciòla. Annali dell’Istituto Sperimen-tale Agronomico, 11:61-71.

Sweet, J.B.; Barbara, D.J. 1979. A ye-llow mosaic disease of horse chestnutcaused by apple mosaic virus. Annalsof Applied Biology, 92:335-341.

Tasias, J. 1975. El avellano en la pro-vincia de Tarragona. Diputación deTarragona (ed.), 363pp.

Tous, J.; Romero, A.; Plana, J.; Rovira, M.;Vargas, F.J. 1997. Performance of ‘Negret’hazelnut cultivar on several rootstocks. ActaHorticulturae, 445:233-443.

M. Rovira 1, J. Aramburu 2

Institut de Recerca i TecnologiaAgroalimentàries (IRTA)

1 Departament d’Arboricultura Mediterrània,Centre de Mas Bové. Apartat, 415

43280 Reus, Spain

2 Departament de Patologia Vegetal,Centre de Cabrils. Ctra. de Cabrils s/n,

08348 Cabrils, Spain


Table 1 shows genetic variability parame-ters calculated averaging values over geo-graphical area samples. The least meansample size per population is 28.5 which isin the South of Italy. The mean number ofalleles per locus varies from 1.5 to 1.6. Theleast percentage of polymorphic loci was38.3, from France, while Greek populationsshared the highest (46.7). The smallest he-terozygosity (He) values occurred in Geor-gia (0.152) whereas Italian and French po-pulations showed similar frequencies. Thisstudy revealed a general low level of gene-tic variability among wild populations of J.regia, lower than those reported for otherbroad-leaves cross-pollinated species suchas Castanea sativa (P= 57.1-85.7 and He =0.229-0.346) (Villani, et al., 1993).

In Table 2, indices showing the distribu-tion of genetic variability, within andamong populations, are reported. Small fvalues did not exhibit strong deviation fromthe equilibrium within groups of populatio-

ns, except for Greek populations where theindex was negative (-0.109), an excess ofheterozygous individuals was shown. Envi-ronmental factors, negatively affecting thefitness of homozygous individuals, are like-ly to have played a role in generating thisresult. A highest q value (0.115) was obser-ved for Caucasian accessions and Spanishpopulations showed double value (0.071)of the other European populations studiedtoo. These results can be explained consi-dering the historical outline of walnut too.The comparison between the absolute va-lues of the indices of the genetic differentia-tion suggested that most of differentiation iswithin populations rather than among popu-lations in Italy, France, Greece and Hunga-ry, whereas in the case of Spain and Cau-casus the q value is higher than f value.

Genetic relationships among populationsfrom different origins were obtained com-puting Nei’s genetic distances (1978).They were generally low among Euro-

pean populations, they ranged from 0.003in Southern Italy and France and 0.040 inGreece and Spain (Table 3). Consideringthe whole set of the populations, Cauca-sus and Spain were the most divergent,showing the distance value of 0.105. Ge-netic diversity among the populations in-creased from West to East, going towardsthe area of origin, following a geographi-cal pattern.

The UPGMA dendrogram based on theabove matrix presented two principal clus-ters (Fig. 2). The first, showing the lowestgenetic distance values, was the most he-terogeneous and included a sub-cluster for-med by all Western populations and ano-ther one constituted by Hungarian andGreek accessions. Caucasus accessionsclustered separately from the others.

The environmental restrictions, even ifthey did not totally modify the nature ofvegetable species, certainly limited its

Legend:

No. Abbr. Location No. Abbr. Location No. Abbr. Location

1 Sp1 Ria del Ferrol 10 I-C Polverina 19 H3 Vasarosnameny2 Sp2 Baix Ebre 11 I-S Tardiano 20 H4 Milota3 F1 Drome 12 I-S S.Arsenio 21 H5 Dunava4 F2 Puy de Dome 13 I-Si Anapo 22 Cauc1 Alazani5 F3 Charente-Poitou 14 I-Si Bivona 23 Cauc2 Lagodekhi6 F4 Ain 15 G1 Macedonia1 24 Cauc3 Doucheti7 I-N Durlo 16 G2 Macedonia2 25 Cauc4 Laponkoury8 I-N Friuli2 17 H1 Tiszakorod 26 Cauc5 Batsarasky9 I-C Sabina 18 H2 Nagyar 27 Cauc6 Skra

Fig. 1 Location of the sampled populations


spreading areas. Some fossil remnantstestify that walnut survived, like otherspecies, in small refugial areas of CentralSouthern Europe as Balkans, SouthernAlps and Pyrenees during the last glacia-tion (Huntley and Birks, 1983).

Starting from the Neolithic age, man hasbecome the main agent contributing todisseminate walnut over its present dayrange of distribution and it is likely that J.regia, because of the appreciated qualityof its profitable end products -nuts, oil,

dye, wood- was domesticated very early(Bottema, 1980). At the same time, do-mestication led to the selection of thosegenotypes showing the most suitabletraits and decreasing the natural geneticvariability mostly within populations.

Currently J. regia is widely cultivated inmost of its range of distribution and it isdifficult to find out a clear limit betweennative and naturalized living populations.In most cases, wild trees might have ari-sen from genotypes that escaped cultiva-tion and became established as sub-spontaneous in certain areas, as well asthe contribution of native residual germ-plasm to the diversification of surveyedpopulations can not be excluded in some

Table 1. Genetic variability parameters considering 9 European areas of population origins

Population origin Number of populations Mean of sample size A P Ho He

Spain 2 55.4 1.5 40.0 0.167 0.176Italy North 37.2 1.6 43.4 0.187 0.199Italy Centre 8 29.0 1.6 40.0 0.170 0.185Italy South 28.5 1.6 43.4 0.189 0.191Sicily 33.8 1.6 43.4 0.185 0.196France 4 34.1 1.6 38.3 0.184 0.178Greece 2 42.9 1.6 46.7 0.212 0.191Hungary 5 32.3 1.6 44.0 0.161 0.170Caucasus 6 29.8 1.6 40.0 0.156 0.152

A: Mean number of alleles per locus.P: Percentage of polymorphic loci.Ho: Mean of Heterozygosity observed.He: Mean of Heterozygosity expected.

Table 2. Distribution of genetic variability within and among European populations of J. regia.F-statistics of Weir and Cockerham (1984)

Population origin F q f

Spain 0.123 [0.043,0.158] 0.071 [0.004,0.110] 0.057 [0.014,0.085]Italy 0.087 [0.020,0.148] 0.034 [0.014,0.055] 0.056 [-0.017,0.112]France -0.001 [-0.060,0.057] 0.015 [-0.006,0.043] -0.016 [-0.063,0.031]Greece -0.079 [-0.282,0.101] 0.027 [-0.006,0.070] -0.109 [-0.310,0.077]Hungary 0.090 [-0.028,0.226] 0.037 [0.004,0.093] 0.056 [-0.042,0.161]Caucasus 0.089 [-0.018,0.182] 0.115 [0.087,0.137] -0.030 [-0.140-0.074]

F: Deviation of genotype frequencies from Hardy-Weinberg expectation over all population. Confident interval at 95%.q: Level of differentiation among populations. Confident interval at 95%.f: Deviation of genotype frequencies from Hardy-Weinberg expectation within single population. Confident interval at 95%.

Table 3. Matrix of the genetic distances (Nei, 1978) among groups of populations.

Origin SpainSpain 0.016 FranceFrance 0.012 0.002 Italy NItaly N 0.013 0.005 0.000 Italy CItaly C 0.017 0.008 0.008 0.017 Italy SItaly S 0.012 0.003 0.005 0.008 0.000 Italy SiItaly Si 0.009 0.011 0.009 0.013 0.012 0.015 HungaryHungary 0.032 0.025 0.012 0.025 0.017 0.033 0.008 GreeceGreece 0.040 0.024 0.011 0.019 0.015 0.031 0.015 0.006 CaucasusCaucasus 0.105 0.090 0.065 0.083 0.075 0.095 0.052 0.048 0.034

Fig. 2 UPGMA dendogram among groups of populations. Nei's distance (1978)

Italy-NItaly-SFranceItaly-CItaly-SiSpainHungaryGreeceCaucasus

0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0.00


areas. The fragmentation of natural habi-tat and the selective pressure leading tothe spread of only a limited number of ge-notypes are likely the main causes of theobserved genetic erosion in this planttree. The genetic erosion arises morefrom the spread of only few successfulcultivars than as direct consequence ofplant improvement.

CONCLUSIONSNevertheless, despite of the limited level ofgenetic variability occurring among J. regiaas a whole, two interesting points have tobe considered for an evaluation of the ge-netic resources available in Europe. Firstly,the presence of genotypes adapted to localenvironmental conditions, as shown by thevariation of F statistics values among popu-lations from different areas. Secondly, theoccurrence of different rare alleles withinsome populations, which would give evi-dence to the existence of still distinguishedgene pools.

These results could be very useful to planand design conservation programmes ai-ming to preserve the genetic variability stillpresent in different countries and to succe-ed in identifying genotypes for future bree-ding programmes. Certainly a better defini-tion of areas having a particular biologicalvalue for the species will be necessary.

Joint action by different countries will allowto keep the resources for genetic improve-ment unchanged. Problems and needs ofeach country would be better faced by acontinue co-operation and the establish-ment of a net for exchanging information.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis research was supported by the AIR3CT92-0142 UE Project and by Italian andSpanish national research projects. Theauthors would like to thank E. Germain(INRA; Bordeaux, France), B. Fady (INRA,Domaine du Ruscas, France), J. Becquey(IDF, Lion, France), K.P. Panetsos (Univer-sity of Thessaloniki, Greece), and F. Fer-nández (CIF de Lourizán, Pontevedra,Spain) for their collaboration providingFrench, Caucasian, Greek and Spanish po-pulations, respectively. M. E. Malvolti andM. Spada are particularly grateful to F.Cannata who was the first craftsman of theItalian genetic research on walnut.

Spanish populations were surveyed, co-llected and analyzed by the Dept.d’Arboricultura Mediterrània, Centre MasBové, IRTA, with support from InstitutoNacional de Investigación y TecnologíaAgraria y Alimentaria (INIA). Italian popu-lations were surveyed, collected andanalyzed in the framework of the Projectfor quality wood production, supported bythe Italian Ministry for Agriculture and Fo-restry. The Hungarian populations were

surveyed, collected, and then analyzed,in the framework of the bilateral Agree-ment between CNR and Hungarian Aca-demy of Sciences MTA, Hungary.

REFERENCES

Aletà, N.; Olarte, C.; Truco, M.J.; Arús, P.1990. Identification of walnut cultivars by iso-zyme analysis. Acta Horticulturae 284: 91- 96.

Aletà, N.; Rovira, M.; Ninot, A.; Arús, P. 1993.Inheritance of four isozymes in walnut. ActaHorticulturae 311: 62 - 67.

Arulsekar, S.; Parfitt, D.E. 1986. Isozymeanalysis procedures for stone fruits, almond,grape, walnut, pistachio and fig. HortScienceVol. 21 (4): 928-933.

Arulsekar, S.; McGranahan, G.H.; Parfitt, D.E.1986. Inheritance of phosphoglucomutaseand esterase isozymes in Persian walnut. TheJournal of Heredity 77: 220-221.

Bottema S. 1980. On the history of the walnut(Juglans regia L) in South-eastern Europe.Acta Bot. Neerl., 29: 343-349

Germain, E.; Aletà, N.; Ninot, A.; Rouskas, D.;Zakinthinos, G.; Gomes Pereira, J.A.; Monas-tra, F.; Limongelli, F. 1997. Prospections réali-sées dans les populations de semis de noyerd’Espagne, de Grèce, d’Italie et du Portugal:caractéristiques des populations et descriptionen collections d’études des préselections is-sues de ces prospections. Options Mediterra-néennes 16: 9-40.

Huntley B.; Birks H.J.B. 1983. An atlas of pastand present pollen maps for Europe: 0-13000years ago. Cambridge University Press. N.Y.:238-243

Leslie C.A.; Mc Granahan G. 1988. Native po-pulations of Juglans regia. A draft. In : Procee-dings International Conference on Walnuts,Yalova (Turkey), September 19-23, 1988:111-124

Malvolti M.E., Paciucci M., Cannata F.; Fines-chi S. 1993. Genetic variation in Italian «popu-lations» of Juglans regia L. - Acta Horticultu-rae, 311: 86-91

Malvolti M. E., Fineschi S., Morgante M.; Ven-dramin G.G. 1995. Mating system of naturali-sed Juglans regia L. population in Italy. In: Po-pulation genetics and gene conservation of fo-rest trees. Ph. Baradat, W.T. Adams & G. Mü-ller-Stark (eds.), SPB Academic Publishing,Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Nei M. 1978. Estimation of average heterozy-gosity and genetic distances from a smallnumber of individuals. Genetics, 89: 583-590

Villani F., Cherubini M., Parducci L., PigliucciM.; Sun O. 1993. Genetic diversity of Casta-nea sativa Mill in Europe: Theoretical aspectsand applied perspectives. In: Proceedings ofthe International Congress on Chestnut. Spo-leto (Italy), October 20-23, 1993: 281-284

Weir, B.S.; Cockerham, C.C. 1984. EstimatingF-statistics for the analysis of population struc-ture. Evolution, 38: 1358-1370

Weir, B.S. 1990. Genetic Data Analysis. Sin-auer Ass. Inc Publishers, Sunderland, Mas-sachussetts, pp. 140-143.

M. E. Malvolti1, N. Aletà2, A. Ninot2

and M. Spada1

1 Istituto per l’Agroselvicoltura, CNR,Porano (TR), Italy

2 Departament d’Arboricultura Mediterrània -IRTA. Centre de Mas Bové. P.O Box 415.

43280 Reus, Spain

NUT CROPS SITUATIONIN ROMANIA

Temperate nut crops are of great interestin Romania. Apart from walnut, which isby far the most important nut crop, haze-lnut, chestnut and almond are alsogrown.

WALNUTThe walnut has an important position inRomania. Romania was one of the lea-ding walnut producing countries in thepast (more than 128,500 t in 1938) andcurrently annual walnut production isaround 33,000 t. One of the characteris-tics of the Romanian walnut productionis the variability of fruit quality due to thefact that it comes from walnut treesgrown on their own roots, which are na-tural hybrids. The total number of walnuttrees overpasses 4,600,000 and most ofthem are not grafted. Organised or-chards are rare, the entire surface ofwalnut orchards does not exceed 7,600ha, the rest of the walnut trees beingspread all over the country.

During the last two decades, some re-search programs with respect to walnutwere launched. The aims of these pro-grams were to exploit the existing gene-tic variability and to modernise the wal-nut growing. The activity of identifica-tion, evaluation and exploitation of ge-netic resources involved the FruitGrowing Research-Extension Institute(Institutul de Cercetare-Dezvoltare Po-micola, ICDP) from Pitesti Maracineniand the Fruit Growing Research-Exten-sion Research Stations (Statiunea deCercetare-Dezvoltare Pomicola, SCDP)from Geoagiu and Tg. Jiu. More then800 selections were evaluated, 16 ofthem being released as walnut cultivars.Also, other selections are under evalua-tion. One walnut cultivar (‘Sarmis’) wasnamed as the result of controlled cros-ses carried out at SCDP Geoagiu.

Grafting cultivars onto rootstocks in thenurseries, because of some technicaldifficulties, did not rapidly propagate Ro-manian and foreign walnut cultivars andbecause of this, the extension of mo-dern walnut orchards was reduced. Until1990, the major achievement of the pro-gramme was releasing walnut cultivars,a valuable genetic base for new or-chards. These cultivars are productive,they have medium to high vigour, termi-nal bearing, they are frost resistant andtolerant to blight and anthracnosis. After1993, SCDP Valcea and University ofCraiova, Department of Horticulturestarted a new breeding program. Thegenetic base was completed with newgenetic resources and the breeding ob-


jectives were fixed: productivity, preco-city, lateral bearing, quality fruits andkernels, high percentage of kernel (morethan 50%), tolerant or resistant to bacte-riosis and anthracnosis.

At the same time, a program for walnutrootstocks was also started. The aimsare: intra and interspecific rootstockswith high vigour, adapted to the ecologi-cal conditions of Romania, resistant tobacteriosis and CLRV (Cherry Leaf RollVirus). More than 2,800 intra and inter-specific hybrids are currently under eva-luation.

Concomitant with the breeding program,cultivar testing is also carried out. Wal-nut cultivars from Romania and abroadare tested into various regions of Roma-nia, under different conditions. At SCDPValcea 11 Romanian and 20 foreignwalnut cultivars (from France, USA,Germany and Bulgaria) were planted inthe cultivar trials.

In 1995 an intensive walnut propagationactivity was started at SCDP Valcea.The grafting methods used with successare chip budding (in the field) and whipand tongue and cleft grafting (benchgrafting). The last ones are followed by“hot callusing” at the grafting point. De-pending on the demand, between20,000-35,000 grafted walnut trees areproduced each year in the Valcea nur-sery. Walnut In vitro propagation activityis only being started at this station. Forthe next 4-5 years, a tendency to esta-blish new walnut orchards of high pro-ductivity and with quality fruits can bepredicted. This fact is caused by the in-creasing demand of walnut fruits andkernel on the international market.

HAZELNUTHazelnut culture is relatively limited butthis species is wide spread in almost allforests, up to 800 m high. The firsthazelnut cultivars were introduced inRomania in the 19th century and theirculture was established around the mo-nasteries.The first research programme for hazel-nut was started in 1978 at SCDP Val-cea. The main objectives were introduc-tion and evaluation of hazelnut cultivarsfrom abroad (45 cultivars), propagationof the most valuable, establishing themost favourable areas for hazelnutgrowing and breeding of new cultivars.Some areas with favourable climaticconditions for hazelnut growing occur inOltenia, Muntenia, Dobrogea, Banat andCrisana regions. More than 500 ha ofhazelnut orchards were established butbecause of restitution of land to the ow-ners done by the state (1991), some ofthem were abandoned. However, the

extension of hazelnut growing took pla-ce mainly inside small gardens.

As a result of the breeding programme,new cultivars were released: ‘Valcea22’, ‘Cozia’ and ‘Romavel’. These culti-vars together with ‘Tonda Gentile dellaLanghe’, ‘Hall’s Giant’, ‘Cosford’ and‘Ennis’ were propagated in the nursery.Stool and simple layering are used forpropagation of hazelnut cultivars. An-nually, the Valcea nursery is producingmore than 30,000 hazelnut plants. Anincreased interest of the farmers can benoticed for new hazelnut orchards. Ne-vertheless, these orchards are still ofsmall dimensions (0.5-2 ha).

CHESTNUTChestnut culture in Romania is locatedinto two major zones: South-West or Ol-tenia - Valcea, Gorj and Mehedinti de-partments and North-West - Maramures,Salaj, Arad where 31,000 chestnut treesare estimated. Most of them are grownon their own roots, very few are grafted.They are spread as individual trees orare grouped together (between 2-10trees). There are some chestnut grovesin the North of Oltenia and in Maramu-res. During the last years, few chestnutorchards were set up but they are notvery large in size. Chestnut productionis relatively small, most of the nuts areprocessed as puree, and the rest are co-oked or fried.

There is some concern for chestnut de-velopment in Romania. SCDP BaiaMare, SCDP Tg. Jiu and SCDP Valceacarry out this work. As a result of thescreening done into the local populationsof chestnut, 7 cultivars were named. Atpresent, an evaluation work of chestnutselections and cultivars is taking part(SCDP Tg. Jiu and SCDP Valcea). TenFrench chestnut cultivars were recentlyintroduced into the testing trial fromSCDP Valcea together with local selec-tions. A breeding programme for chest-nut is running at SCDP Baia Mare andValcea. Also, chestnut propagation iscarried out in SCDP Tg. Jiu and SCDPValcea and even in vitro propagation istaken under consideration (SCDP Val-cea).

ALMONDThe almond is a crop type known forlong time in Romania but which is lessspread. Generally, almond trees can befound as isolated trees into the vine-yards and into the peach growing areas,mainly in Bihor, Mehedinti, Buzau, Salaj,Prahova and Dolj departments and inDobrogea. In 1979, 49,000 almond treeswere estimated, most of them are not inorchards. Taking into account the valueof this crop type, since 1950, some stu-

dies focused on establishing the favou-rable areas and the cultivar assortmentsuitable for growing in Romania weredone. Therefore, numerous almond cul-tivars were introduced and studied atSCDP Bihor, SCDP Constanta andSCDP Mehedinti. Also, a screening workinto the local population was made in or-der to identify the most valuable genoty-pes. As a result of this screening, onecultivar was named ‘Marculesti’. In1991, SCDP Bihor released an almondrootstock (‘Felix’). SCDP Bihor andSCDP Mehedinti are involved in a bree-ding programme which has the objecti-ves of obtaining self-fertile almond culti-vars with good resistance to low tempe-ratures and frost, early ripening and withhigh kernel percentage.

CONCLUSIONSThe nut sector benefit of tradition,favourable ecological conditions, atleast in some precise areas, but the ex-tension of nut growing and modernisingof this sector is dependent on lack of fi-nancial resources for establishing andmaintaining modern nut orchards. Haze-lnut, chestnut and almond cultures arefocused on internal consumption, onlywalnut culture assures amounts of fruitsfor export. The development of thesenut crops depends upon the existence ofa sustained research on the basis of in-ternational cooperation which can helpto provide a qualitative level of nut pro-duction for the European market.

REFERENCES

Cociu, V. et al. 1983. Cultura nucului.Editura Ceres, Bucuresti. 163pp.

Glaman, Gh. 1994. Cercetari cu privirela stabilirea directiilor de sporire a efi-cientei economice in productia pomi-cola din Romania. Teza doctorat.USAB Bucuresti.

Parnia, P. et al. 1997. 30 de ani de ac-tivitate (1967-1997) a ICDP Pitesti, Pi-testi Maracineni.

Popescu, M. et al. 1993. Pomicultura(Generala si Speciala). Editura didacti-ca si pedagogica, R.A., Bucuresti .420 pp.

Vasilescu, V. and Botu, M. 1997. Theprincipal varieties of walnut from Ro-mania. Proc. III Intl. Walnut Congress,Acta Hort. 442, ISHS : 271-276.

M. BotuStatiunea de Cercetare Dezvoltare

Pomicola Valcea464, Calea Traian str.

1000 Rm. ValceaRomania


3

3

(87)

18

2

11

(16)

1(65)

2

(67)

(46) 3

P. lentiscus

P. weinmannifolia

P. mexicana

P. texana

P. chinensis

P. integerrina

P. terebinthus

P. atlantica

P. khinjuk

P. veraS. molle

Len

tisc

us

Ter

ebin

thu

s

PHYLOGENY OF THE GENUSPISTACIA AS DETERMINEDFROM ANALYSIS OF THECHLOROPLAST GENOME

INTRODUCTIONClassification within the genus Pistaciahas been based on leaf morphology andgeographical distribution. The most com-plete revision and taxonomic descriptionsfor Pistacia was provided by Zohary(1952) who developed a phylogeny of thegenus and species description using mor-phological characters with some referen-ce to the fossil records with the samecharacteristics. Using primary leaf cha-racteristics and some seed charactersZohary described 11 Pistacia species,which he divided into four sections: Len-tiscella containing P.mexicana HBK andP. texana Swingle; Eu Lentiscus contai-ning P. lentiscus L., P. saporte Burnat,and P. weinmanifolia Poisson; Butmelacontaining P. atlantica Desf.; and Eu tere-binthus containing P. chinensis Bge., P.khinjuk Stocks, P. palaestina Bois., P. te-rebinthus, and P. vera L.

Pistacia species easily form interspecifichybrids, suggesting a close relationship.The reported chromosome counts did notcontribute to a better understanding of the-se relationships. The level of speciationand relationships within the genus basedon these characteristics remains unclear.

A very effective approach for determiningrelationships among species is the exa-mination at the DNA level. By means ofmolecular genetic tools a new set of va-riables can be provided. Chloroplast DNAis specially useful since it changes (ormutates) relatively slowly compared tonuclear DNA (Clegg and Zurawski, 1992).Variation in most of the nuclear genomeis less useful because higher mutationrate can produce significant variationwithin species at a given locus. Therefo-re, few individuals per species are nee-ded for chloroplast based phylogenies,while significant within species populationssampling is needed when nuclear varia-tion is used. Two approaches were usedfor this study: total DNA digested, restric-ted, electrophoresed, blotted into a nylonmembrane and probed with specific DNAprobes for regions of the chloroplast ge-nome and amplifications of a specific re-gion within the chloroplast genome bymeans of polymerase chain reaction, fo-llowed by restriction of the DNA to identifymutations within the region.

MATERIALS AND METHODSPlant materialPlant materials studied from Pistacia

comprised: several clones of P.atlantica,P.chinensis, P.khinjuk, P.lentiscus,P.mexicana, P.texana, P.vera, P. terebin-thus, P. weinmanifolia, Schinus molle lo-cated within the Anacardiaceae was usedas an outgroup

DNA isolationTotal DNA was isolated from 5 g. of freshleaves of 2-5 accessions of several Pista-cia species using the CTAB method of Do-yle and Doyle (1987). Twenty ml. of CTABbuffer were used per isolation and yielded100-600 mg of DNA.

Analysis of the non-coding regionA region of variable cpDNA (Ogihara etal., 1991), was amplified via PCR as des-cribed by Arnold et al., (1991) with somemodifications (Badenes and Parfitt, 1995).Primers for the flanking sequences weresynthesised by Operon Tecnologies. Inc.Complete amplifications were obtained forall samples. Twenty-seven restriction en-donucleases were chosen according totheir ability to restrict cpDNA within theamplified fragment based on previous stu-dies in tobacco (Dowling et al., 1990). Am-plified restricted DNA was electrophore-sed in 2 % agarose gels at 50 v for 4 h.

Restriction analysis of chloroplast ge-nome.The entire chloroplast genome was analy-sed for cpDNA restriction site polymor-phism using the general procedures des-cribed by Dowling et al. (1990). Six to tenmg of DNA were restricted with EcoRI,HindIII, PalI, BamHI, XbaI were used inPistacia. The restricted DNA was separa-ted in 0.8 % agarose gels for 6 base-cut-ters and 1.2 % agarose gels for PalI at 20

v for 18 hours, blotted to Amersham Hy-bond N membranes (Southern, 1975),followed by cross-linking. The clonesfrom the cpDNA library constructed fromNicotiana tabacum (Olmstead and Pal-mer, 1992) were used as probes. ThecpDNA probes were labelled with digoxi-genin dUTP by random priming. Labe-lling and hibridization were performed asdescribed in the Boehringer, Manheinsystem with some modifications (Bade-nes and Parfitt, 1994).

Data analysis.UPGMA cluster analysis using Nei andRogers distances were performed withBYOSIS-1 version 1.7 (Swofford, 1989)using average linkage. Dollo and mixedDollo and Fith (sequence rearrange-ments were considered to be unordered)parsymony analysis were performed withPAUP version 3.0 (Swofford, 1990)using the branch and bound search algo-rithm with simple addition to find themost parsimonious unrooted tree. UPG-MA cluster analysis and a Warner dis-tance tree were also computed using theRogers distance matrix with BYOSIS-1.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONAfter restriction of the rbcl region usingtwenty seven enzyme thirty four frag-ments were obtained from the analysisof Pistacia, of which twenty seven werepolymorphic corresponding to nine muta-tions. Seven additional mutations werefound in the outgroup Schinus molle. Allof the polymorphisms corresponded topoint mutation (nucleotide changes atthe restriction site). No small length mu-tations were found. No differences within

Figure 1. Consensus phylogram from analyses of 10 Pistaciaspecies and Schius molle outgroup


species at cpDNA level. Restrictionanalysis of the entire chloroplast genomeof Pistacia with five restriction endonu-cleases and 40 probes which covered theentire genome provided 6 mutations. Fourof these mutations involved the loss orgain of a sequence without correspondingchanges in other bands and were scoredas DNA rearrangements rather than again or loss of a restriction site. The othertwo mutations were a gain of a site.

The analysis of PCR amplified regions ofchloroplast genome provided a significantnumber of additional DNA polymorphismsbeyond those that could be obtained byconventional RFLP analysis of the chloro-plast genome. Although the polymor-phism identified from the PCR analysiswere due to site mutations (a gain or lossof a restriction site) and the mutationalevents observed in the whole chloroplastwere primarily rearrangements (gain orloss of a sequence), both procedures pro-vide mutations suitable for phylogeny re-construction. The use of both proceduresis especially useful with species havinglong generation times where low rates ofmutation provide insufficient mutations foranalysis via conventional RFLP analysis

The complete phylogeny for the 10 spe-cies of Pistacia are presented in Fig. 1The mixed Dollo tree was considered tobe the most correct phylogeny because aunique tree was obtained, and the as-sumptions used in the analysis were mostappropriate for the data. Related speciesare joined at each vertical point. The rela-tive level of evolution is represented bythe relative placement of the species fromleft to right.

The results of the present study suggestthat Pistacia is a relatively slow evolvinggenus. Using the number of mutationalevents observed and the fosil record assummarized by Zohary (1952) the genusevolved 100 times more slowly than an-nual plants. Similar results were obtainedfor palms (Wilson et al., 1987). This factagrees with Li and Tanimura (1987), theysuggested that the long generation timeof perennial plants may reduce the rate ofevolutionary change.

The species are separated into two pri-mary groupings which also correspond tothe species division evergreen versus de-cidous leaf characters. Four evergreenspecies: P. weinmanifolia, P. lentiscus, P.mexicana and P. texana are completelyseparated from the remaining species. P.vera and P. khinjuk are the least evolvedspecies in the genus and the closest tothe ancestral progenitors of the genus.This is consistent with a Central Asiancenter of diversity of the genus. Zoharypostulated that P.khinjuk to be directly

descendent from P.vera hypothesis thatcan be compatible with the cpDNA resul-ts. Both species were considered themost primitive of the genus, hypothesisthat is supported by this study. Zoharyconsidered the New World species,P.mexicana and P. texana derived fromP. chinensis based on morphology. Fromour results these species are monophyle-tic with P. weinmanifolia which suggestthey share a common Asian ancestor. P.integerrima is a distinct species from P.chinensis which agrees with the uniqueand different characteristics of these spe-cies as rootstock. Species in both clus-ters which diverged relatively early, haveevolved smaller leaves with more leafletsand smaller seeds although these mono-phyletic groups probably evolved inde-pendently. The evolution toward smallerseed with a hard endocarp parallels achange in reproductive strategy . Both cp-DNA and leaf and seed morphology sup-port the division of the genus in two sec-tions, Lentiscus and Terebinthus. All ofthe species in Lentiscus are evergreenwith a paripinnate leaflet arrangementwhereas Terebinthus species lose theirleaves in autum and have imparipinnateleaves. Seed size in Lentiscus species ismuch reduced compared with that of Te-rebinthus species.

LITERATURE CITED

Arnold M.L. C.M. Buckner and J.J. Robin-son. 1991. Pollen-mediated introgresionand hybrid speciation in Loisiana irises.Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 88:1398-1402.

Badenes M.L., D..E . Parfitt 1994. Re-ducing Background Interference onSouthern Blots Probed with Non-radio-active chemiluminiscent Probes. BioTe-chniques 17(4):622-623.

Badenes, M.L. and D.E Parfitt. 1995.Phylogenetic relationships of cultivatedPrunus species from an analysis ofchloroplast DNA variation. Theor. Appl.Genet 90, 1035-1041.

Clegg M.T. and G. Zurawski 1992.Chloroplast DNA and the study of plantphylogeny: present status and futureprospects. In: P.S. Soltis, D.E. Soltisand J.J. Doyle, (eds). Molecular Syste-matic of Plants. Chapman and Hall,New York, pp.1-13.

Doyle, J.J. and J.L. Doyle 1987. A rapidDNA isolation procedure for small quan-tities of fresh leaf tissue. Phytochem.Bul 19:11-15.

Dowling, T.E., Moritz, C. and J.D. Palmer.1990. Nucleic acids II: restriction-siteanalysis. In: Hillis D.M. and Moritz ,C.(eds). Molecular Systematics. SinauerAssociates, Sunderland, MA. 588 p.

Li W.H. and M. Tanimura. 1987. The mo-lecular clock runs slower in man than inapes and monkeys. Nature 326: 93-96.

USE OF WILD PISTACHIOSIN THE MEDITERRANEAN

REGION OF TURKEY

Apart from the South Eastern AnatolianRegion, which is the traditional Turkishpistachio growing area, wild pistachiotrees are often found throughout the Me-diterranean Region. Regarding topogra-phy, this region consists of two zones:one is the coastal strip and the other isthe mountainous chain (Taurus range).Both lay parallel to the Mediterraneansea. One may come across large P. at-lantica trees along the coastal zone ormedium size P. khinjuk trees in themountainous zone; small sized trees ofP. terebinthus that usually grow as bus-

Ogihara, Y., Terachi,T., Sasakuma, T.1991. Molecular analysis of the hot-spotregion related to length mutations inwheat chloroplast DNAs. I. Nucleotidedivergence of genes and intergenic spa-cer regions located in the hot spot re-gion. Genetics 129, 873-884.

Olmstead R.G. and J.D. Palmer. 1992.A chloroplast DNA phylogeny of the So-lanaceae: subfamilial relationships andcharacter evolution. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gar-den 79:346-360.

Southern, E.M. 1975. Deteccion of spe-cific sequences among DNA fragmentsseparated by gel electrophoresis. J.Mol. Biol. 98, 503-517.

Swofford D.L 1990. PAUP; Phylogene-tic analysis using parsimony, version3.0. Illinois Natural History Survey.Champaign,Ill.

Swofford D.L. 1989. Byosis-1: A compu-ter program for the analysis of allelic va-riation in population genetics and bio-chemical systematic, release 1.7. Illi-nois Natural History Survey.Champaign,Ill.

Wilson, M.A., B. Gaut and M.T. Clegg.1990. Chloroplast DNA evolves slowlyin the palm family (Arecaceae). Mol.Bio. Evol. 7:303-314.

Zohary, M. 1952. A monographical stu-dy of the genus Pistacia . Palestine J.Bot., Jerusalen Ser. 5: 187-228.

M.L. BadenesInstituto Valenciano

de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA)Apartado Oficial

46113 Moncada, Valencia, Spain

D.E. ParfittUniversity of California

Department of PomologyDavis, CA 95616 - USA


hes occupy a prominent position throug-hout the region.

In Icel province P. terebinthus trees areestimated as about 12 million in number,and sixty percent of the population is lo-cated in-forest and the rest in out-forest.Because of wide adaptability to differenttypes of soils and climates, P. terebinthustrees thrive well from the coastal zone upto 2,000 m altitude. However, the fre-quency of the P. terebinthus trees differswidely. While growing abundant in someplaces, they are rather scarce in others.This situation that has arisen in the areawhere wild pistachios have low density isdue to cutting for wood and removal forannual crops. Therefore, they have beco-me established along the road sides orthe field boundaries in coastal zone. Theyare usually more dense on the slopes anduplands of the mountainous zone.Recently wild pistachios do not occupyany location that could be cultivated com-mercially.

Although P. terebinthus trees have beenattracted a country-side attention for topbudding to pistachio cultivars, economicexploitation of these trees is mainly prac-ticed in Icel province of the Mediterra-nean Region. During two decades P. te-rebinthus trees have been greatly valuedas rootstocks for Pistachio by upland far-mers. Growers, individually or with su-pport from the local agricultural services,top bud and get benefit of these sponta-neously grown rootstocks near their villa-ges. The number of pistachio trees onthis rootstock has reached 800.000. Fur-thermore, 200.000 buddings are beingperformed per year. The use of chipbudding with dormant budwood has alsoextended the period for top budding (Ca-glar and Kaska, 1995). The open spacesbetween the scattered trees have alsobeen filled with the container grown pista-chio seedlings which are chip budded inspring. An area that covers Senir, Nuruand Imambekirli, villages of the Icel pro-vince, which is located at 400 m altitudehas become the center for pistachio pro-duction in the region. Roughly 500 t ofpistachio nuts are being produced annua-lly in a relatively small area, which areappreciated by the pistachio industry be-cause of their greenish kernel.

The chilling requirement of pistachio wascalculated to be between 600 and 900 chillunits (Kaska et al., 1992) which limits itsgrowing area. The slopes facing south in lo-wer altitudes are under mild winter tempe-rature and the pistachios which are close tocoastal strip zone produce incompletely de-veloped leaflets and some single leaves,which shows insufficient winter chilling(Crane and Takeda, 1979; Caglar et al.,1995). But with increasing altitude on the

slopes, the chilling requirement of thetrees seem to be fulfilled as they showno symptoms of change in leaf form.The critical altitude that limits lowestpistachio culture with respect to chillingmay be 200 m above sea level, wherecitrics may get damaged due to low win-ter temperatures. Yet, below this altitu-de, some rest-breaking agents may behelpful for satisfying chilling requirementof pistachios or some low chilling requi-

Figure 1. P. terebinthus bushes subject to topworking as rootstock

Figure 2. P. vera trees topworked on P. terebinthus bushes

rement cultivars like ‘Larnaka’ and ‘Ma-teur’ can be used.

It seems the trend to P. terebinthus topworking of this rootstock will continuefor many years as it does play an impor-tant role to increase the income of thepoor farmers. But it raises another ques-tion: is the genetic richness of P. tere-binthus in the Mediterranean region di-sappearing after each top working?


LITERATURE CITED

Caglar, S.; Kaska, N., 1995. Top-budding of P. terebinthus L. Rootstockin the Mediterranean Region of Turkey.First International Symposium on Pista-chio Nut. Acta Horticulturae, 419: 237-242.

Kaska, N.; Kuden, A.B.; Ak, B.E.; Kuru,C.; Tekin, H., 1992. Determination ofchilling requirements by classical andchill unit methods and sum of growingdegree hours in some important pista-chio cultivars. First National Horticultu-ral Congress, vol. 1: 73-77 (in Turkish).(Fruit), Izmir, Turkey

Crane, J.C.; Takeda, F., 1979. The uni-que response of the pistachio tree to in-adequate winter chilling. HortScience,14 (2): 135-137.

Caglar, S.; Kuden, A.B.; Kaska, N.;Ayanoglu, H., 1995. The chilling requi-rements of pistachio grown under thesubtropical climate of the Mediterra-nean Region. Second National Horticul-tural Congress, Fruit vol. 1: 403-407 (inTurkish). Adana, Turkey.

S. Caglar and N. KaskaDepartment of HorticultureFaculty of Agriculture, KSUKahraman Maras, Turkey

Tel: 344 2237666Fax: 344 2230048

E-mail: [email protected]

CURRENT SITUATION ANDPROSPECTS OF THESTONEPINES AS NUT

PRODUCER

INTRODUCTIONMost fruits and nuts are harvested fromcultivated trees. However, stonepine (Pi-nus pinea L.) from which cones are har-vested are trees growing still as foreststands. These stands have been desig-ned on a mixed yield of wood and cones,and thus looking for tall and clean trunkswhich make harvesting of cones very di-fficult. Although currently pinion produc-tion can be considered more importantthan wood profit, as it generates higherand more steady incomes, stonepinesthriving on mountains should not loosetheir main forestal aspect in the future.

With this background it seems clear that pi-nion production has to find soon other sup-plying sources, apart from the current fo-restal stands, as the difficulty and the highharvesting cost will make this crop totallyuneconomic. Currently, in the developedcountries, the income obtained by the sale

of pinions can be divided in 80-90% for pic-kers and 10-20% for owners.

Mechanization of stonepine harvestingusing shakers, although maybe possiblein some flat areas with low tree densities,is not feasible in most cases. The onlypossible alternatives to maintain this mar-ket alive and rising in the future, would beeither improving yield of the futurestands, using selected seed and applyinga woodland management only focussedon cone production, which would easecheaper harvesting or planting very pro-ductive orchards, using clonal rootstocksof selected stonepines as pinion produ-cers. In these plantings agronomic techni-cal approaches will be applied for theiroptimum development as is done withother tree crops like almond, orange,apple, etc.

GENETIC IMPROVEMENTStonepine genetic improvement program-mes in Spain have been based on two acti-vity lines; selection and delimitation of se-lected forests and stands to get seeds andselection of high producing pinion pine indi-viduals for vegetative propagation.

SELECTION OF FORESTS ANDSTANDSThe main aim of this line would be to de-termine areas where selected seeds of anacceptable genetic quality could be har-vested, at a reasonably low price, for re-foresting programmes. A forest or standcan be classified as select when most in-dividuals present phenotypic characteris-tics, regarding the character for which the

selection is made, clearly superior to thesurrounding populations and which situa-tion is sufficiently isolated from other po-pulations showing worse characteristics.An isolation of about 500 m can be suffi-cient distance to secure that polen co-ming from undesired populations mayreach individuals of the selected area. Ascriterion for selection of these stands theecological evaluation of the species, aswell as productive and phenotipic diffe-rentiation (evaluated by cone harvest) ofthe stands has to be considered (Gordoand Gil; 1995).

Due to the absence of records which allowsus to know the genetic structure of thisspecies, we can only make an approachto their genetic variability, assuming itscorrelation with the environmental varia-bility. The natural presence of a speciesin a broad range of climatic and edaphicconditions, would mean the existence ofdifferent populations adapted to specificenvironments (Prada and Gil; 1997).

As more precise data are lacking to knowthe genetic structure of this specie, thegeographic structure (isolation) andphytoclimatic, edaphic and altitude fac-tors can be considered as the most diffe-rentiating aspects. Using as a base thegeographical distribution and these eco-logical aspects, the DGCONA and theETSIM have established for the wholeSpanish stonepine growing area sevensource regions and four restricted zones.

As region source for this species, sub-species or a determinated variety, it isconsidered the territory or the whole ofdistricts having the same ecological con-

Stone pine stand managed to produce cones at Herdade do Monto Mora in Alcacer do Sal, Portugal


ditions in which populations thrive andpresent similar phenotypical or genotypi-cal characteristics. In each of these regio-ns of source, or at least in those whichare interesting from the point of view offruit production, selected forests orstands are determined as basic materialto get selected reproduction material,using cone production as selection para-meter. In Castile and León since severalyears trials are made on this subject andas result there is a proposal presented tobe inclosed in the ‘Catálogo Nacional deMateriales de Base’, of several selectedstonepine forests and stands for the re-gions of source called Meseta North andValleys of Tiétar and Alberche. In thearea of Meseta North, a selected foresthas been delimited, with a surface of 360ha and 6 selected stands with surfacesranging from 16 ha to 90 ha; and in thesource area, Tiétar and Alberche Valleys,3 selected stands have been determinedwith surfaces ranging from 8 ha to 75 ha.(Gordo and Gil; 1993). In Andalusia, inthe area of the Guadalquivir Valley trialswere made too, and there will be a possi-bility to have available some selectedstands of this specie in the provinces ofHuelva and Cádiz soon.

With the seeds obtained from thesestands much more productive forestswould be established and if a convenientforestal management is given it will in-crease cone production (spacy plantingswith big tree crowns) which will make har-vest cheaper, obtaining rootstocks withvery short trunks and low crowns. Thiswill increase yields and cone harvestingwill be a safer and more attractive job forpickers. In Portugal, in the area of Alca-cer do Sal, this technique is being usedsince several years and currently thereare several mountains devoted to coneproduction with trees having big crownswith short trunks, which enables the har-vest of the cones from the ground.

SELECTION AND PROPAGATION OFTREES FOR THEIR CULTIVATIONThe stonepine, although it is mainly a fo-rest specie, presents very special featu-res which would allow it to play a very im-portant role as nut tree crop, due to itsrusticity, reduced water requirement andgood resistance to frost. Stonepine couldbe a very interesting alternative for far-ming lands, currently devoted to cereals,but with very low yields, which makestheir cultivation no longer profitable. Thefirst condition, to make the stonepine toproduce nuts succesfully is the availabili-ty of certified and productive propagatedmaterial. Thus, it will be necessary toidentify, select and propagate stonepinetrees standing out for being good coneproducers. All Mediterranean forest ma-

nagers familiarized with stonepine, knowthat on the populations exist some indivi-duals that crop better. It is common tofind trees that can produce about 1,000cones per year and in some cases excep-tionally good and large invididuals havebeen found producing more than 2,000cones in one harvest.

The Spanish genetic improvementprogramme’s main aim is to find and se-lect stonepines considered as good coneproducers, to propagate them vegetative-ly by grafting and get very productivetrees, which would start producing in afew years. It is known that cones of sto-nepines take three years from pollinationto ripening and as grafted trees they har-dly produce flowers during the first yearsand it will last 4 or 5 years to harvest thefirst ripe cones.

The use of a reduced number of genoty-pes, of very similar characteristics refer-ring to size and type of cones and pinions,will allow to get a much more homoge-nous product than the existing, with aprobable increased acceptance by consu-mers. To start this programme the firstconsideration made was the election ofthe parametres defining quantitatively thequality of a stonepine, as good cone pro-ducer. Many parameters were studiedand the different relationships betweenthe product achieved (number of cones,their weight or shelled pinion weight) andthe crown surface (area of the sphere orellipsoid), or crown projection (consideredas a circle or ellipse) were assessed.

In this project the weight of good pinenuts/m2 of ellipse surface was used as

main parametre. As this geometric form isconsidered the closest to that of the profi-table crown of the stonepine and theweight of good pinions is the final aim ofthe selection. Considering that no impor-tant differences are observed using oneparameter or the other, it was concludedthat the most advisable parameter to defi-ne the quality of a tree would be the we-ight of a good unshelled pine nut per m2

of crown projection, comparing it to a cir-cle of average diameter, as this parame-tre can also be used to assess harvests ifthe surface covered by the crowns isknown (Catalán et al, 1997).

For each source region of this project,200 plus trees were identified by the se-lecting team, considering the informationprovided by the foresters, cone pickersand local people. Of these 200 selectedtrees all cones were gathered, they wereweighed and counted and, also the badcones were separated, weighed andcounted. A sample of 20 good cones waschosen at random, weighed and their pi-nions were taken out and were weighedtoo, determining blanks. Finally, the we-ight of good pine nuts under crown pro-jection was determined (g/m2), conside-ring it similar to an average diametre cir-cle among the measures in direction N-Sand E-W.

From the 200 plus trees selected at thestart, the best 100 trees were chosen andpropagated by grafting, at the start of thefollowing spring, applying the substitutionmethod of terminal guide (Gil and Palo-mar, 1987). To graft young dormantshoots, or even better when they are star-ting their vegetative growth, were used onrootstocks already moving of about 2 or 3years old. These grafts can be made, witha relatively high percentage of success(30-80%), on plants of the same kind oron other stonepines. Grafts have beendone on rootstocks of several species (P.halepensis Mill. and P. eldarica Medw.)and at least during the first 15-20 yearsany kind of incompatibility has been ob-served. Recently, another grafting me-thod has been developed in which a pairof leaves are grafted with their correspon-ding patch, this technique, simple tomake, allows to enlarge the period forgrafting and the possibility to increase thegrafts per donor tree (Palomar et al.,1993).

With these clones two gene banks arebeing established in two different places;one in Madrid and another in The Almo-raima (Cádiz). Each source is represen-ted by 90-95 clones and each clon repea-ted 8 times; planting distance is 3m x 3m.and it is foreseen to reduce the number ofrootstocks to the half, but always keepingfour repetitions of each clon, at a final

Stone pine cone harvesting in Valladolid, Spain


spacing of 3m x 6m. In these two clonalbanks it has been foreseen that everyyear cones will be gathered, counted andweighed, and the pinions will be extrac-ted, determining the average weight ofgood pine nuts with shell for each clon.With these records and repeating it forseveral years, it will be possible to deter-mine the best clones for each location.

It is still soon to have production recordsof these clonal banks but several Spanishand Portuguese authors, based on theoutputs obtained in the first years havedeveloped some approaching tables ofpine nut productions in grafted stonepine

orchards. J.L. Gallego produced some ta-bles of estimated productions, whichsummarized and adapted to the orcharddensities of 400 and 500 rootstocks, arereported on Table 1. In this same line Lo-pes Barreira (1989) developed someapproaching production tables of pine-apples, for the region of Alcacer do Salt(Portugal), in orchards of grafted stonepi-nes (Table 2). This author considers aninitial density of 625 grafted trees perhectare and some tree removal, after 12,22 and 32 years, until reaching a finaldensity of some 100 trees/ha. The esti-mated productions seem high, even forwell managed orchards.

It is important to consider that during thefirst 15-20 years the grafts of stonepinesbehave like female individuals and theyonly produce female flowers and it takesmore than 15 years to appear the firstcatkins. This circumstance compels toplant next to mature stands, that producelarge amounts of pollen, in order to assu-re a good pollination or resort to the artifi-cial pollination until the grafts produceenough amount of pollen. This circums-tance is especially significant when graf-ting on different pine species, as wherethese grafts are made, stonepine doesnot adapt well and consequently, it is verydifficult to grow adult trees of this speciesin its environment. In these cases therealways has to be artificially pollinated orwait for more than 20 years in order toharvest the first pine nuts.

The interest of growers for this crop isclear and there are some orchards of sto-nepine grafted on seedlings of the samespecies in several Portuguese and Spa-nish places. There also are other or-chards with grafts on seedlings of Pinushalepensis Mill. (Catalan, 1996), someti-mes in combination with other species.Near Madrid, in calcareous-loamy soilsand with low rainfall, a mixed plantation ofstonepine was made, grafted on Aleppopine, in alternate lines with Lavandula,with the aim to get benefits from the yearafter plantation (Catalán and Catalán,1996).

As soon as certified material for propaga-tion would be available, demand is sup-posed to increase and many new or-chards would be planted. To extend thiscultivation nurseries are needed whichsell, at a reasonable price, grafted stone-pines or experts looking after the graftingin situ. Stonepine grafting is a very spe-cialized job which is out of reach for mostfarmers.

REFERENCES

Agrimi, M.; Ciancio, O. 1994 - Le pinpignon (Pinus Pinea L.). MonographieDocument provisoire distribué 16ª Ses-sion du Comite CFFSA/CEF/CFPO desQuestions Forestiéres Médirerranéen-nes - Silva Mediterranea. 1994. Larnaca(Cyprus).

Albo Agrimi Y Vila, P.P. 1993. El Pinuspinea L. como alternativa a los cultivosagrícolas. Fruticultura Profesional, (54):88-92.

Alpuim, M. 1989. Perspectivas actuaispara ó melhoramento da Pinus pinea L..Reunión sobre Selvicultura, Mejora yProducción de Pinus pinea. INIA-CEE.Madrid.

Detail of cone production on a stone pine grafted onto P. halepensis as rootstock

Mixed plantation of stone pine grafted onto P. halepensis and lavenderat Pezuela de las Torres, in Madrid, Spain


Boisseau, B. 1993. Ecologie du pin pig-non. Informations Tecniques du CEMA-GRE (France), (92): 1-8.

Butler, I.; Abellanas, B.; Monteagudo,F.J.; Bastida, F.; Lopez, J. 1997. Prime-ros resultados de una parcela de ensa-yo de técnicas de cultivo agronómico deinjertos de pino piñonero en la finca ex-perimental “El Cebollar” (Moguer, Huel-va). I Congreso Forestal Hispano-Luso,IRATI 97, Pamplona, M (3): 99-104.

Capuana, M.; Giannini, R. 1995. In Vitroplantlet regeneration from embryonicexplants of Pinus pinea L.. In Vitro ce-llular and deveopmental biology. PlantJournal of the Tissue Culture Associa-tion, 31 (4): 202-206.

Carvalho, M. A. 1989. Algumas consi-deracoes sobre ó pinheiro manso na re-giao de Alcacer do Sal. Reunión sobreSelvicultura, Mejora y Producción de Pi-nus pinea. INIA-CEE. Madrid 11 -12, Di-ciembre 1989.

Castellani, C. 1989. La produzione leg-nosa e del frutto e la durata del turnoeconomico delle pinete coetanee dipino domestico (Pinus pinea L.) in uncomplesso assestato a prevalente fun-zione produttiva in Italia. Annali IstitutoSperimentale Assestamento e Alpicoltu-ra, Vol. XII. Trento: 161-221 pp.

Castellani, C. 1989. Panorámica gene-rale della produzione dei pinole in Italia.Reunión sobre Selvicultura, Mejora yProducción de Pinus pinea. INIA-CEE.Madrid 11-12 pp.

Catalán, G. 1989. El pino piñonerocomo productor de fruto en España. Re-unión sobre Selvicultura, Mejora y Pro-ducción de Pinus pinea. INIA-CEE. Ma-drid 11-12 pp.

Catalán, G. 1990. Plantaciones de Pin-us pinea L. en zonas calizas para pro-ducción precoz de piñón. Ecología (4)ICONA: 105-120.

Catalán, G.; Catalán., G. 1996. Planta-ciones mixtas de lavandín e injertos depino piñonero en terrenos agrícolasmarginales. Rev. ITEA, Vol. Extra (17):406-412.

Catalan, G.; Dietl Bernhardt, T.; Enciso,E.. 1997. Selección de árboles sobresa-lientes, en cuanto a producción de fru-to, en los pinares de Pino piñonero enla región Valles del Tiétar y del Alber-che. Parámetros de selección. I Con-greso Forestal Hispano-Luso, IRATI 97,Pamplona, M (3): 141-146.

Crawford, M. 1995. Nut pines. Wanatca.Yearbook, 19:56-66; 1 fig. 1 map.; 17 ref.

Dimatoglou, S.; Panagopoulos, Y.; Mu-ñoz-Ferriz, A.; Rhizopoulou, S., 1990.In Vitro studies of embryo growth, ca-llus formation and multiple bud induc-tion of Pinus pinea L.. Journal of plantphysiology (Germany) 137(1): 58-63.

Gallardo, J.; Gallardo De Prado, J.1991. Cinco estudios sobre injertos depino piñonero. Ecología (5) ICONA;197-209.

Garcia Güemes, C.; Cañadas, N.; Zu-loaga, F.; Guerrero, M.; Montero, G.,1997. Producción de piñas de Pinus pi-nea L. en los montes de la provincia deValladolid en la campaña 1996/97. ICongreso Forestal Hispano Luso IRATI97, Pamplona, M (4): 273-278.

Garcia-Ferriz, L.; Serrano, L.; Pardos,J.A. 1994. In Vitro shoot organogene-sis from excised immature cotyledons

and microcuttings production in Stone-pines”. Plan Cell, Tissue and OrganCulture (Netherlands), 36 (1): 135-140.

Gil, L.; Perez, V.; Palomar, J., 1987. Elinjerto en los pinos. Hojas divulgadorasdel MAPA nº 20/86 H.D.

Gil, L.; Abellanas, B., 1989. La mejoragenética del pino piñonero. Montes(21): 4-12.

Source: Lopes Barreira (1989)

Table 2. Estimated pinion production in relation to ageand planting distances in Portugal

Age Trees / haCrown

diameter(m)

Crownprojection

(m2)

Nº of pinionsper m2 crown

projection

Nº ofpinionsper tree

Nº ofpinionsper ha

5-910-1415-3031-80

625500300100

3,55,57,5

10,0

10244478

58

1115

50192484

1.170

31.25096.000

145.200117.000

Table 1. Estimated pinion production in relation to ageand planting distances in Spain

Pinion production (kg/ha)Years after grafting Cones /tree 500 trees/ha 400 trees/ha

456789

1011

4 cones = 1kgShelling percentage: 18%Source: J.L. Gallego

0,733,287,27

11,6115,1919,8522,1325,50

16,473,8

163,7261,3341,8446,6498,0573,7

13,259,0

130,9209,0273,4357,3398,4459,0

AVERAGE 200 111 32 11,49 6,18 4,98 22,22 574,11 71,61AVERAGE 15 184 57 12,04 12,12 10,78 10,84 637,65 207,95MINIMUM 1.006 225 43,18 43,20 30,77 91,03 907,07 556,00MINIMUM 19 3 00 0,35 0,18 2,20 329,19 3,60

Table 3. Source regions: valleys of ‘Tietar’ and ‘Alberche’. Data of the best15 trees and average of the selected trees

Cone Pinion

Pinionproduction

/ circlesurface

Age(years)

Nºweight

kg%

spoilt

Totalweight

kg

Goodkg

Blanks%

Weightof 1000units

g/m2

809378596972769076866862708768

370183289102298230138214117120112140158110178

8634

12031

11460368137454552272862

5,4110,9318,3417,4833,569,576,526,077,69

10,0014,295,715,06

22,737,30

20,9016,9723,366,83

12,5712,657,93

17,668,319,299,12

11,065,845,37

13,92

18,7314,9220,396,28

11,289,677,54

16,297,958,758,10

10,444,704,68

12,06

10,4012,0712,728,03

10,2823,564,977,744,325,89

11,235,64

19,5512,9513,36

477,88781,78787,85543,52612,64675,59530,86545,23907,07710,12753,56720,16390,03513,07615,47

556,00342,40201,03200,22186,64175,44168,53166,70166,68165,89159,47158,79157,75157,03156,74


Gordo Alonso, F.J.; Mutke Regneri, S.;Gil Sanchez, L., 1997. “Variabilidad enla producción de fruto de Pinus pinea L.en la provincia de Valladolid. I Congre-so Forestal Hispano-Luso, IRATI 97,Pamplona, M (4): 327-332.

Gordo, J., 1989. Los pinares de la me-seta de Castilla y León. Reunión sobreSelvicultura, Mejora y Producción de Pi-nus pinea. INIA-CEE. Madrid.

International Organization For Standar-dization, 1991. Unshelled pine nuts.Specification. Prepared by TechnicalCommittee ISO/TC 34: AgriculturalFood Products. Sub-Committee SC13:Dry and Dried Fruits and Vegetales. 1de. Geneva (Switzerland). ISO. 7 p.

Montero, G.; Yagüe, S., 1983. Ordena-ción de los pinares de pino piñonero(Pinus pinea L.) Manual de Ordenaciónde Montes de A. Madrigal, Edit. ICONA.Madrid: 344-357.

Rincon, A.; Alvarez, I.; Parladé, J.;Pera, J., 1997. Micorrización controladade Pinus Pinea en vivero. I CongresoForestal Hispano Luso IRATI 97, Pam-plona, M (3): 545-550.

Vangelisti, R.; Viegi, L.; Renzoni, G.C.,1995. Responses of Pinus pinea and P.pinaster seedling roots to substrata atdifferent pH values. Anales-BotaniciFennici, 32 (1): 19-27; 34 ref.

Villarroya, M.; Chueca, M.C.; Montero,G.; Garcia Baudin, J.M., 1997. Res-puesta de Pinus pinea al herbicidahexazinona. I Congreso Forestal Hispa-no-Luso IRATI 97, Pamplona, M (3):679-684.

Yagüe, S., 1997. Selvicultura mediterrá-nea para una especie mediterránea: Elpino piñonero (Pinus pinea L.) en laprovincia de Ávila. I Congreso ForestalHispano-Luso, IRATI 97, Pamplona, M(4): 571-576.

Yagüe, S., 1994. Silviculture and pro-duction of stonepines (Pinus pinea L.)stands in the province of Avila (Spain).IUFRO (International Union of ForestryResearch Organizations) Meeting onMountain Silviculture. Valsain (Spain).

G. CatalánINIA - Centro de Investigación Forestal

Avenida Padre Huidobro, s/n28040 - Madrid, Spain

CAROB GENETIC RESOURCESIN THE BALEARIC ISLANDS

INTRODUCTIONThe carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) is anevergreen tree native to the eastern Me-diterranean region and it was introducedin most mild areas. Wild and naturalized

carobs are distributed in more or less thesame geographic and climatic belt as thecultivated. In the Iberian Peninsula, formsof spontaneous carobs are particularlycommon at low altitudes along the Medi-terranean coast, southwest Spain,southern Portugal and the Balearic Is-lands (Batlle and Tous, 1997). It is impor-tant to explore the native carob geneticresources of each carob growing regionas knowledge about existing cultivars isstill poor and surveys were recommended(Batlle, 1997). The islands due to theirisolated conditions are particularly inter-esting to be surveyed.

The carob is a dioecious species withsome hermaphroditic forms; thus male,female and hermaphrodite flowers aregenerally born on different trees. The ca-rob grows as sclerophyllous shrub or treeup to 10 m high, with a broad semiesphe-rical crown and a thick trunk and sturdybranches (Batlle and Tous, 1997). Thecarob tree thrives on poor, calcareousand dry soils on which it prevents ero-sion. It can only withstand light frost; tem-peratures below -7ºC can damage trees,especially young ones (Tous and Batlle,1990). The carob tree although being aleguminous is unable to fix atmosphericnitrogen (Martins-Louçâo and Rodríguez-Barrueco, 1982).

Traditionally, the pulp of the pod wasused for livestock feed; the seeds werediscarded (or used for weighing jewelsand drugs as carats!). Thus growers havebeen selecting towards high pulp content.However, over the last decades the mostprofitable part of the pod has become theseed for extracting a gun to make a stabi-lizer and thickener used by the food and

pet food industries. In addition carobpowder made from ground pods is usedas healthful substitute for cocoa and inthe production of pharmaceuticals.

In the Balearic Islands, the main SpanishMediterranean group of islands (5,014 km2)there are both, mainly cultivated but alsowild types of carob trees. There arearound 12,000 carob cultivated hectaresand some 50,000 scattered trees (MAPA,1997). The annual production of carobpods is estimated on 25,000 t, variabledepending on years, and seems underes-timated due to some direct consumptionby sheep and goats. Some cultivars fromthe Balearic Islands are been reported toyield 16% of seeds (Batlle and Tous,1997. We report here our collecting activi-ties and findings.

MATERIALS AND METHODSThe methodology followed was similar tothat used in early carob surveys made inCatalonia (Batlle and Tous, 1990) andAndalusia (Batlle and Tous, 1994). Theobjectives of the carob survey in the Ba-learic Islands were:

• To establish and limit growing areas ofthe main cultivars• To identify existing cultivars, discardingsynonyms and misnames• To identify outstanding types of highseed yield, low alternate bearing, lowsusceptibility to Oidium, uniform ripeningand easy pod dropping• To introduce the selected types atIRTA’s carob gene bank

The final aim of this survey is to obtainmaterial with particular characters rather

Figure 1. Carob and almond orchard at Ibiza, Spain


than to conserve the genetic diversity ofthis crop. Thus to offer to the producingand nursery sectors cultivars and types ofhigh seed yield (more than 12% of yield).

During a week in September 1998 wecarried out a prospection of carob germ-plasm in the major islands of Majorca andIbiza. We first identified the main produ-cing areas of Majorca and Ibiza, from pre-vious information (Rullán and Estelrich,1882; Caja et al., 1984), and establishedan itinerary. Our exploration was carriedout in September which is the periodwhen carob ripening and flowering over-lap. Pods are ready for harvest and socan be assessed, and flowers show thesex of each tree and the potential crop forthe following year. We travelled by car,some 1,000 km around both islands. It isplanned to collect and introduce the indi-viduals identified by budding on seedlingsin April 1999. Some 6 selected types willbe introduced at IRTA’s carob gene bank.

RESULTS AND COMMENTSCarob growing in Majorca and Ibiza iswell spread over both islands as most ofthe places are mild. Orchards are onlymissing above 500 m over sea level, fromthe Tramontana range, along the westernpart of Majorca. Only small number ofwild carobs are present in other islands ofthe archipelago. Annual mean temperatu-re during the year varies between 16ºCand 17ºC in Majorca and is around17,5ºC in Ibiza (Elias and Ruíz, 1977).Average annual rainfall of the main carobgrowing area ranges from less than 400mm to 900 mm in Majorca and from 300mm to 500 mm in Ibiza (Elias and Ruíz,1977). Carob is frequently found growingwith almond trees (Fig.1) and also with figand olive trees (this last association ismore often found in Ibiza). While the ca-rob is a very drought resistant speciesand grows well on unirrigated lands, itsproduction of pods is related to theamount of effective rainfall and thus pro-duction on both islands is very variable.In some zones, it is common to findsheep and goats feeding directly on thecarob groves. Harvesting, which is a ma-jor cost in carob production, is carried outmanually using long poles to knock downripe pods and collecting them on fibrenets laid out under the trees.

Commercially, the two main carob podparts are (by weight): pulp (90%) andseed (10%). Variation in the proportion ofboth bean constituents is wide and risesthe interest of selecting high seed yiel-ding cultivars. This is also used to basethe commercial classification of carobpods of both islands in 4 geographicalareas depending on origin and pod traitcharacteristics (mainly seed yield):

“Mountain” (high >13%), “Plain” (medium,9-12%), “Soller” (low < 9%) and “Ibiza”(medium-high, 9-13%).

Traditionally, the main selection aims bygrowers have been large pod size andhigh pulp and sugar content. It is knownthat pulp and seed content show a negati-ve correlation. Female plants alwayshave been selected in preference to thehermaphrodites as they are better podbearers (Batlle and Tous, 1997). Withinthe cultivated germplasm of the BalearicIslands wide variation of pod size andshape was found (Fig. 2). The most likelyorigin of cultivars is as chance seedlings.

The most interesting features of the carobcultivars in the Balearic Islands are: highnumber (23: 17 female and 6 hermaphro-dite), antiquity and limited diffusion. Mostcultivars found were already cultivated in1800. In addition, cultivars show a limiteddistribution and only grown close to theiroriginal area. Currently, there is a trend toreduce the number of cultivars and to pro-pagate only the most seed yielding (al-though the record of seed production perhectare, which is the important, is largelyunknown) like ‘Bugadera’ and ‘Duraió’ inMajorca and ‘Uraiona’ in Ibiza.

During the survey a high number of her-maphrodite types were observed. A hig-her number than in other producing regio-ns of the Iberian Peninsula. A main culti-var in Majorca like ‘Bugadera’ shows of-ten perfect flowers. In this cultivar, sexexpression seems to be related to envi-ronmental conditions. Similarly, occurs inIbiza with the hermaphrodite ‘Banyeta’.The cultivation of hermaphrodite cultivarshas only been found before with ‘Ramille-

te’ in Murcia, other Spanish growing area,as mainly female cultivars are grown(Batlle and Tous, 1997).

Apart from the common presence of her-maphrodites, orchard pollination is assu-red by males which are isolated seedlingtrees or branches left on rootstocks afterbudding female cultivars. These arefound on the orchards or their edges. Twomain unproductive male types were ob-served and locally named after their an-ther colour as ‘Red’ and ‘Yellow’. As inother regions it appears that blooming of‘Red’ males is more extended than that of‘Yellow’ males (Batlle and Tous, 1997).

MajorcaDuring the survey, 20 female and 3 her-maphrodite names were listed. Only 16 ofthe female cultivars are different and therest are synonyms (‘Costella’ syn. ‘Coste-lla d’Ase’, ‘De la Mel’ syn. ‘Negrillo’, ‘DelCabull’ syn. ‘Del Remei’). The cultivars‘Rotge’, grown in the north, and ‘Verme-lla’ grown in the south are different. Anumber of cultivars as well as local typesare grown in very small areas. Main culti-vars like ‘Bugadera’, ‘Costella’, ‘Duraió’and ‘De la Mel’ are grown mainly in theEast, the West, the Centre and the Palmaplaine respectively. There were alsofound a number or very local ones like‘Denia’, ‘Fua de Rabó’, ‘Punyal’, ‘Toledo’and ‘Valencia’. Some recently selectedpromising local types like ‘D’en Pau’ fromSta. Maria del Camí, which is highly pro-ductive, does not drop leaves understress and shows low susceptibiliy to Oi-dium in inland Majorca, were also identi-fied. This cultivar is now been propagatedby growers outside its original area. Inaddition, it was interesting to know some

Figure 2. Carob pod diversity from the Balearic Islands


particular uses of cultivars like ‘Vermella’from the area of Llucmajor, which producespods with high content of rose-colouredpulp and were very much demanded backin the 1950’s during the cacao crisis, due toits good pulp characteristics to be roastedand used as cocoa substitute. ‘Vermella’pods stand strong winds and ripes late (J.Martí, personal communication).

Cultivars were classified into 3 groups,regarding their importance; as main: ‘Bu-gadera’, ‘Duraió’, and ‘De la Mel’; secon-dary: ‘Costella’, ‘Mollar’, ‘Negra’, ‘Picd’Abella’, ‘Rotge’, ‘Vera’ and ‘Vermella’;and local types: ‘Fua de Rabo’, ‘Mausu-lin’, ‘Pasta Negra’; and ‘Florite’, ‘Manflori-da’ and ‘Lloseta’ (hermaphrodites).

IbizaDuring the survey 8 female cultivar na-mes and 2 hermaphrodites were inventa-riated. Of the female types only 5 weredistict cultivars as some were synonyms(‘Panesca’ syn. ‘Rodona’ or ‘Rodó’) and afew were mistakes (‘Uraiona’ or ‘Uraiófrom Ibiza is different from ‘Duraiona’ or‘Duraió’ from Majorca). The name ‘Espa-ña’ groups a number of different types.Cultivars were classified into 3 groups,regarding their importance, as main culti-vars: ‘Panesca’ and ‘’Boval’; secondary‘Fina’ and ‘Uraiona’; and local types:‘Banyeta’ and ‘Rojal’ (hermaphrodites).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis work has been granted by the Insti-tuto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnolo-gía Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA) of theSpanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheriesand Food through the Project (RF98-021). We are indebted to the Govern Ba-lear for providing a car. We are grateful tomany growers and kibblers for their help.

REFERENCES

Batlle, I. 1997. Current situation andpossibilities of development of the ca-rob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) in the Me-diterranean region. Nucis 6: 33-38.

Batlle, I.; J. Tous. 1990. Cultivares au-tóctonos de algarrobo (Ceratonia siliquaL.) en Cataluña. Investigación Agraria.vol. 5 (2): 223-238.

Batlle, I.; J. Tous. 1994. Carob germ-plasm in Andalusia. Nucis 2: 10-11.

Batlle, I.; J. Tous. 1997. Carob tree. Ce-ratonia siliqua L. Promoting the conser-vation and use of underutilized and ne-glected crops. 17. Institute of Plant Ge-netics and Crop Plant Research, Ga-tersleben / International Plant GeneticResources Institute, Rome, Italy. 92 pp.

Caja, G., R. Casanova, A. Cabot. 1984.El Algarrobo (Ceratonia siliqua, L.): sucultivo y posibilidades agropecuarias en

CAROB PRODUCTIONIN CROATIA

Carob production in Croatia is of extensi-ve nature, based on some 26,000 carobtrees growing in parts of Central andSouthern Dalmatia (region along theAdriatic Coast). The main producingareas are the islands of Vis, Lastovo, Sol-ta, Korcula and the area of Dubrovnik.The annual carob crop is estimated in300-400 t and is collected from scatteredtrees and groves, and is exclusively pro-cessed into carob flour. Production is ba-sed on the following local cultivars: ‘Ko-miski’, ‘Sipanski’ and ‘Mekis’. Table 1

shows nutritional composition values ofthese three cultivars.

Currently no sustained selection program-mes are carried out in Croatia regardingcarob. Future developments regardingcarob production in Croatia will be focu-sed on introduction of foreign cultivars,selection of local types, development ofmodern orchard production and invest-ment in processing facilities in order to in-crease the number of carob productsavailable to the industry.

M. KalebAgricultural Extension Service

Ante Starcevica 1520350 Metkovic, Croatia

Table 1. Nutritional composition values of three Croatian carob cultivars

Cultivar Water Total Sugar Fat Protein Free acids Ash Fiber(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)

‘Komiski’ 11.96 47.39 0.17 4.12 0.88 1.27 6.43‘Mekis’ 12.38 50.49 0.25 4.68 1.00 2.14 5.36‘Sipanski’ 12.20 51.41 0.25 4.06 0.80 1.98 7.02

CHANGE OF ESCORENACOORDINATION

In August 1998, Dr. Isabel Alvarez wasappointed Senior Regional Officer for Re-search and Technology of the FAO’s Re-gional Office for Europe at Rome, Italy. I.Alvarez, as coordinator of the EuropeanSystem of Cooperative Research Networ-ks in Agriculture (ESCORENA) will be incharge of FAO’s coordination of the Inter-regional Cooperative Research Networkon Nuts. Her work as responsible of allactivities on research and technology re-lating to sustainable agriculture, develop-ment, production and environmental is-sues of the FAO’s programme in Europe.As responsible of promoting and monito-ring the development of scientific and te-chnical cooperation among the Europeancountries and between European and de-veloping countries in the Mediterraneanbasin and Central and Eastern Europe,Middle East and West Asian countriesshe has an important task ahead. Herworking capacity and management skillswill certainly be very useful to plan and

NEWS AND NOTES

Baleares. Avances de resultados. Cajade Ahorros “Sa Nostra”. Palma de Ma-llorca, 103 pages (typeset copy).

Elias, F.; L, Ruíz. 1977. Agroclimatolo-gía de España. Instituto Nacional de In-vestigaciones Agrarias. Cuaderno INIA7. Ministerio de Agricultura. Madrid.

Martins-Louçâo, M.A.; C. Rodríguez-Ba-rrueco. 1982. Studies in nitrogenase acti-vity of carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) calluscultures associated with Rizhobium. Pro-ceedings. V International Congress PlantTissue Culture. Tokio. 671-672.

MAPA. 1997. Ministerio de Agricultura,Pesca y Alimentación. Anuario de Esta-dística Agraria. Ed. Secretaría GeneralTécnica. Madrid, España.

Rullán, J. y P. Estelrich. 1882. Memoriasobre el algarrobo y su cultivo en Ma-llorca. Imprenta y librería de P.J. Gela-bert Imprenta. Palma de Mallorca, Es-paña. 100 pp

Tous, J.; I. Batlle. 1990. El algarrobo.Ed. Mundi-Prensa. Madrid, 102 pp.

I. Batlle1, J. Tous1 and J. Rallo 2

1 Institut de Receca i TecnologiaAgroalimentàries (IRTA)

Centre de Mas Bové, Departamentd’Arboricultura Mediterrània. Apartat 415,

43280 Reus, Spain

2 Conselleria d’Agricultura, Comerç i Indústria.Govern Balear, C/ Foners 10,

07006 Palma de Mallorca, Spain


develop cooperation programmes onR+D+T. From IRTA Mas Bové, as Coordi-nation Centre of the Research Nut Net-work, we wish her all the best on this newjob. We also send a kind regard to J. Bo-yazoglu, the former Regional Officer.

CHANGE OF THE CHESTNUTSUBNETWORK LIAISON

OFFICER

In the Chestnut Subnetwork Meeting heldduring the II ISHS International Congresson Chestnut held at Bordeaux last Octo-ber, Prof. G. Bounous took over from J.A.Gomes-Pereira the responsibility to coor-dinate the activities within this subnet-work. We would like to thank J.A. Gomes-Pereira for the effort made to develop thechestnut subnetwork since its establish-ment in 1991 after producing a wide Re-port to assess the possibilities of this cropin our Nut Network and the eventual esta-blishment of a Subnetwork. He has beenworking recently on the “Inventory of che-stnut research, germplasm and referen-ces” which is still to be finished and edi-ted. We plan to have it ready in the year2000. Professor G. Bounous from Dept.of Fruit Trees of the Torino University,Italy will face an important task ahead tocompile and edit all the information alrea-dy gathered and still to come. We wish G.Bounous all the best on his important taskahead.

OBSERVATION OF AP. terebinthus

HERMAPHRODITE IN ISRAEL

During a botanical exploration and seedcollecting tour on the Mediterranean ma-quis and forest communities of the Ju-dean hills in Israel in early October 1998and while observing P. palaestina srhubs,which are widespread and native to thismountain range, we found a P. terebin-thus shrub placed at Mevóot Beitar (20km south-west of Jerusalem and ca. 550m of altitude). The P. terebinthus shrubwas spotted due to its typical reddish co-lour leaves in early autumn. This indivi-dual also showed distinctive traits likewell developed terminal leaflet. This is adiagnostic trait used to distinguish thistaxa from the closely related P. palaesti-na without evident terminal leaflet. P. te-rebinthus thriving as indigenous in Israelhas not been reported before. A secondnearby P. terebinthus individual wasfound and its close observation showed

sexual abnormalities as both female inflo-rescences carrying no nuts and male in-florescence remains appeared in thesame stem. Sex behaviour of this plantshould be closely followed up in comingyears as to detect if its hermaphroditismis a stable character or not. Both obser-vations were striking as neither is com-mon to find monoecy within the Pistaciagenus which is regarded largely dioecio-us. However there are reports by Ozbekand Ayfer (1958) in Turkey and Crane(1974) in California describing herma-phroditism in Pistacia and attributing it tounknown reasons and to somatic muta-tion respectively.

LITERATURE CITED

Crane J.C., 1974. Hermaphroditism in Pis-tacia. California Agriculture, 28 (2): 3-4.

Ozbek S. and M. Ayfer, 1958. An her-maphrodite Pistacia in the vicinity of An-tep, Turkey. Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort.Sci., 72: 240-241.

F.J. Vargas 1, A. Golan 2, I. Batlle1

and D. Zohary 3

1IRTA-Mas Bové. Dept. d’ArboriculturaMediterrània, Apartat 415, 43280 Reus, Spain.

2 Ben Gurion University of The Negev,The Jacob Blaustein Institute for DesertResearch, Desert Plant Biotechnology

Laboratory, Sede Boker Campus,84990, Israel.

3 The Hebrew UniversityDepartment of Evolution, Systematics and

Ecology, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.

A Pistacia vera SEEDCOLLECTION TRIP TO

TURKMENISTAN

In the course of our project to establish aMediterranean Pistacia germplasm collec-tion we collected wild P. vera seeds in Tur-kmenistan at the Badhiz reserve and in theKopedagh mountains. The results of thesecollection trips were summarized and re-ported recently (Golan-Goldhirsh et al.,1998; Golan-Goldhirsh and Kostiukovsky,1998). The Badhiz reserve is among theonly places saved on earth where wild P.vera woodlands are protected in their natu-ral habitat. The head of the reserve, Mr.Tagandurdi Igshi Muradov and a few localTurkmen families take care of the reserve.A view of wild P. vera trees in the reserve isshown in figure 1. The seeds of the wildpistachio trees are harvested by localpeople, dried in the sun and are used for lo-cal consumption and for sale on the mar-ket. The pistachio is cultivated in this re-gion still by primitive practices. Wild seeds,with now specific selection are planted onslopes in a ‘nested planting’ method, where5-10 seeds are put in an approximately 10cm deep hole for germination and growthon site. The developing trees look likeshrubs. The yields are low and the ripeseeds are harvested manually mostly by lo-cal women. There is a big potential for im-provement in the cultivation and harvestingpractices in this region, let alone introductionof a modern breeding and selection program,which will enable Turkmen farmers to enjoythe full potential of pistachio in this area like itis done in Iran, Syria and Turkey.

P. terebinthus specimen growing at the Judean mountains, Israel


REFERENCES

Golan-Goldhirsh, A., Saleh, N.A.M. andVan Damme, P. 1998. Establishment ofa germplasm collection of Mediterra-nean Pistacia. Final report submitted tothe Commission of the European Com-munities, 118 pages.

Golan-Goldhirsh, A. and Kostiukovsky,V. 1998. Mediterranean Pistacia genusgermplasm collection at Sede Boker Is-rael. Acta Horticulturae, 470: 131-137.

A. Golan-GoldhirshBen-Gurion University of the Negev

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for DesertResearch

Desert Plant Biotechnology LaboratorySede Boker Campus

84990 - IsraelTel: 972 7 6596753/4Fax: 972 7 6596742

E-mail: [email protected]

THE RETIREMENT OFANTONIO FELIPE

Dr. Antonio J. Felipe, well known by al-mond researchers across the world, reti-red on March 27, 1998, after a profes-sional career devoted to fruit research,mainly to almond cultivars and rootstocks.His professional work has taken place atthe Zaragoza Research Centre. Whenhe started his work in 1966, almond wasnot even considered as a fruit tree and

he had to start practically everything inrelation to almond research. He esta-blished the first almond collection inSpain, which later became the referencecollection for the GREMPA. In this co-llection it was possible to observe thewide variation among the different culti-vars, the self-compatibility of some ofthem and the enormous possibilities ofimprovement through breeding.

The breeding work was initiated in 1974and in 1987 three cultivars were relea-sed, being the first self-compatible al-mond cultivars obtained from a breedingprogramme. One of these cultivars,‘Guara’, has been extensively planted inmany Spanish growing regions and atpresent it is grown on approximately20.000 ha with near to 3 million trees.This breeding work has been pursuedand in 1997 three more cultivars havebeen registered, ‘Blanquerna’, ‘Cambra’and ‘Felisia’, all of them autogamousand single-kernelled, the last one na-med after his name as a homage.

His work on almond rootstocks startedpractically at the same time, with thestudy of graft-compatibility on differentrootstocks belonging to several Prunusspecies. These observations showedthe interest of two types of rootstocks:the “pollizos” of Murcia and the almondx peach hybrids. As a consequence twobreeding programmes were initiated toselect new rootstocks. Two “pollizos”were released, ‘Montizo’ and ‘Monpol’,characterized by easy propagation, lowsuckering and good adaptability to hea-vy and calcareous soils. Three almond x

peach hybrids have been also selectedbecause of their easy propagation, redleaves and resistance to nematodes:‘Garnem’, ‘Monegro’ and ‘Felinem’.On the day of his retirement, more than200 people gathered as a homage to hisprofessional work at the Hall of the Me-diterranean Agronomical Institute of Za-ragoza (CIHEAM). R. Socias i Company,Head of the Fruit Growing Departmentand his collaborator in the almond bree-ding programme welcomed the assis-tants and thanked their presence. Ch.Grasselly, another well known almondresearcher and also retired, commentedon the wild almond species and the tripthat both made to Afghanistan to collectsome of these species on place. F.J.Vargas (Head of the Mediterranean FruitGrowing Department, IRTA, Mas Bové),another almond researcher and breeder,mentioned the International presence ofAntonio in different activities: congres-ses, projects, consulting, publications...R. Cambra (retired researcher, AulaDei, Zaragoza) reminded the special di-fficulties in the vegetative propagationof fruit rootstocks, a problem which bothshared in many aspects of their work.

A deep emotion arose with the words ofJ. Orero, a well known nurseryman, whostressed the importance of fruit roots-tocks and how this interest changed hislife as a fascination. The acknowledge-ment of the nursery sector was comple-ted by J. Verón and finally J.Embid gaveAntonio a sculpture of Martial, the Ro-man writer from Calatayud and, in away, the first Spanish nurseryman. Tocomplete the points of the nursery sec-tor, M. Carrera (Fruit Growing Depart-ment, Zaragoza) commented several as-pects of ornamental propagation, a ho-bby shared by both for many years,adding some personal aspects of theirrelationship.

A. Espinosa, President of the AlmondGrowers of Alcañiz, focused on the im-portance of the new almond cultivars inthe production and marketing of almond,as also did M. Valdés, Vice-president ofAEOFRUSE, showing that the work onalmond cultivars has been transferred tothe productive sector.

J. M. Bolívar (INIA, Madrid) remindedthe work of Antonio as National Coordi-nator for Fruit Research and in the be-ginning of the Zaragoza Research Cen-tre, as well as M. Mut, former director ofthe IAMZ, commenting on the first cour-ses on Fruit Growing at the IAMZ in thelate sixties.

His participative activities were remin-ded by several associations: first Secre-tary of AIDA (by the president L. Plana),

Wild Pistacia vera growing at the Badhiz reserve, Turkmenistan


member of the Agricultural EngineersCollege (by the member R. Balduque)and of the Spanish Society for Horticul-tural Science (by L. Rallo, who offeredthe Agricultural School of Córdoba for aseries of lectures on Fruit Growing).

P. Errea reminded her PhD under theguidance of Antonio. J. L. Espada stres-sed the importance of experimentationin almond evaluation. J. Gómez Aparisicommented the work on almond roots-tocks and his fruitful achievements. Fi-nally, R. Socias i Company stressed hiswork on almond cultivars and two traitsof a true researcher: a humble position,as he is conscious of what he does notknow, and the ability to speak to all levelof audiences. The homage was endedby J. M. Lasa, Agricultural Councillor ofAragón, who gave Antonio the Medal ofAgricultural Merit given by the King ofSpain, stressing the importance of hiswork.

R. Socias i CompanyUnidad de Fruticultura, SIA-DGA

Apartado 727, 50080 Zaragoza, SpainMontañana 176,

50016 Zaragoza, Spain

BOOK REVIEW

Portela, E.; Martins, A. and Pires, A. L.Práticas culturais de limitação da tinta docastanheiro (in Portuguese). 1998. Uni-versidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto-Do-uro, Vila Real. Edition was 500 issues.

This text provides a synthesis of data, ob-servations, conclusions and recommen-dations, based upon research undertakenbetween 1991 and 1998 in various pro-jects, two of which merit specific here –Chestnut Ink Disease: an IntegratedApproach to its Control and the Releaseof Quality-Improved Material (NATO/SFSProgramme III) and Melhoramento daProdução de Castanheiros or ImprovingChestnut Tree Production (DRATM/PDRITM). These projects and their res-pective lines of research have characte-ristically complementary perspectives,notably due to the integrative and inter-disciplinary approaches they adopt.

The present work, due to its specificcontent, and language, recommends it-self in particular to agro-forestry exten-sion specialists with higher level qualifi-cations and an already-existing interestin and knowledge of chestnut cultiva-tion. Teachers and students in highereducation will also find here much upon

which to both reflect and, perhaps, act.The text aims to identify:• the cultivation practices that, on theone hand, will maximise the capacity ofchestnut trees to cope with ink disease(which is provoked by Phytopthora cin-namoni Rands) and, on the other, willpromote conditions less favourable tothe development of the pathogen; and• the criteria whereby the most propitio-us soil conditions and the most suitablecultivation zones for the development ofhealthy and vigorous chestnut trees maybe readily identified, in particular so asto inform the future selection of locatio-ns for new chestnut plantations.

The identification of local and/or soil-re-lated factors and cultivation practicesmost frequently associated with the pre-sence of chestnut ink disease was aidedby systematic observation and measure-ment throughout the Padrela area, aswell as in the concelhos of Vinhais andMacedo de Cavaleiros. Additionally, mo-nitoring and observation of other groveswas undertaken elsewhere in Trás-os-Montes and in the Beira Interior region.

This synthesis first presents an overallschema which allows the reader to bet-ter understand the inter-relationshipsbetween the various components of thechestnut ecosystem that affect the inci-dence of ink disease. The rest of thetext is devoted to a series of recommen-dations aimed at• facilitating the more precise selectionof areas in which to more safely andsuccessfully establish new groves; and• providing the outlines of a strategy tolimit the incidence of the disease inexisting groves.

It is suggested that plantation of newgroves be avoided in areas with asoutherly exposure, with soils that areexcessively shallow, and/or poorly aera-ted and/or containing less than 2% orga-nic matter. In the case of already-exis-ting plantations, the following recom-mendations are made: the need to ma-nure, especially when organic matter isbelow the above-mentioned level; theimportance of only lightly pruning trees,so as to avoid excessive direct sunlighton soil surface; minimising or even eli-minating ploughing and other disturban-ces of the soil; the use of lighter farmequipment to reduce root damage andthe deterioration of soil structure; limingof soils that are too acid; and the balan-ced application of fertilisers i.e. regulartreatments with those containing cal-cium phosphate and magnesium and, inparticular, avoidance of excessively ni-trogenous fertilisers.

II INTERNATIONAL COURSEON PRODUCTION AND

ECONOMICS OF NUT CROPS

The Second International Course on Pro-duction and Economics of Nut tree Cropswas jointly organized by the CIHEAM,through the Mediterranean AgronomicInstitute of Zaragoza (IAMZ), the Univer-sity of Çukurova, through the Faculty ofAgriculture, and the FAO, with the colla-boration of the Pistachio Research Insti-tute of Gaziantep and with the contribu-tion of the Commission of the EuropeanUnion (DGI). The course took place at theUniversity of Çukurova in Adana, Turkeyand it was held from 18 to 29 May 1998 inmorning and afternoon sessions.

There were 30 participants from 9 coun-tries of the Mediterranian Basin, NorthAfrica and the Near East: Egypt (2), Iran(1), Greece (1), Macedonia (1), Morocco(2), Rumania (1), Spain (1), Tunisia (2)and Turkey (19). The course was given inEnglish by well qualified lecturers fromresearch centres and universities. Twentywas the number of lecturers from 5 coun-tries: France (1), Italy (1), Spain (3), Uni-ted States (2) and Turkey (13).

The course was run accordingly to its pro-gramme. Specific topics related to pro-duction and economics of four nut treecrops (almond, hazelnut, pistachio andwalnut) were lectured. Common issuessuch as marketing, harvest and post-har-vest, irrigation and biotechnology werealso reviewed.

The 70 hours course was divided in lectu-res, round tables discussions, and partici-pants presentations on their own expe-rience (60 hours) and technical visits (10hours) to Nut orchards of the Dept. ofHorticulture, University of Çukurova, Pis-tachio Research Institute, Gaziantep, Pis-tachio processing Factory Güneydogubir-lik, Pistachio market at Nizip, Variouscommercial pistachio orchards, PozantiAgricultural Research Centre, SubtropicalFruit Centre and Biotechnology Laborato-ries of the University of Çukurova.

The students attended the lectures with in-terest and participated actively giving agood grade to the overall outcome of thecourse. Lectures provided graduates withwell elaborated and useful documentation.The preparation of all the documentation inEnglish was appreciated by the partici-

CONGRESSES ANDMEETINGS


chestnut area in Dordogne, near Berge-rac, 90 Km far from Bordeaux. The scien-tists, after a visit of an agricultural coope-rative working with chestnut, had the op-portunity to visit a regional experimentalfield station and to have comments andexchanges about various chestnut experi-mental plots (10 hectares). Moreover, agala dinner was organized in “ChâteauGiscours” one of the renewned “Châ-teaux” of the famous Medoc wine growingregion. To close the symposium, after ashort conclusive speech delivered by theconvener, scientists from Vila Real (Por-tugal) were invited to give some detailsabout their wish to organize the nextISHS Chestnut Symposium.

INTERNATIONALPistacia WORKSHOP

HELD IN IRBID, JORDAN

During the past 14th-17th of December1998 an International Workshop on Pista-cia took place at the Jordan University ofScience and Technology (JUST) in Irbid,Jordan. The Workshop was jointly organi-zed by the International Plant GeneticResources Institute (IPGRI) and JUST.The Workshop was supported by IPGRI’sRegional Office of the CWANA Region atAleppo, Siria. The convener was S. Padu-losi from IPGRI. The motto of this Works-hop was “Towards a comprehensive do-cumentation of distribution and use ofPistachio’s genetic diversity in the Centraland West Asian and North African (CWA-NA) Region”. In addition, three Europeancountries: Greece, Italy and Spain were

pants. The course director Prof. N. Kaskaand his close collaborator Prof. A. Küdenare grateful to the above institutions for thefinancial support given to the course. Theyare also thankful to the Department of Hor-ticulture which was in full collaboration withthe lectures and participants.

II INTERNATIONALCHESTNUT SYMPOSIUM HELD

IN BORDEAUX, FRANCE

The Second International Chestnut Sym-posium was organized by the INRA, Fruitand Vine Research Station, Center ofBordeaux last 19-23 October 1998. G.Salesses, Chairman of the ISHS workinggroup on Chestnut was the Convener. Itwas placed under the auspices of ISHSand during the Symposium a Meeting ofthe FAO/CIHEAM Subnetwork on Chest-nut was also organized by J.A. GomesPereira (Liaison Officer) and F.J. Vargas(Nut Network Coordinator). During thisMeeting. G. Bounous (University of Tori-no, Italy) was appointed to act as the Liai-son Officer of the Chestnut Subnetwork.

The Symposium was attended by some125 scientists coming from 22 countriesrepresenting 4 continents with a very im-portant attendance from Italy and Portu-gal. Welcoming speeches during the ope-ning session were delivered by C. Riou,President of the INRA Center of Bor-deaux, M. Rinaldi, Director of the Ctifl,F.J. Vargas, Coordinator of the FAO/CI-HEAM Network on Nuts, F. Dosba, Fren-ch representative of the Council of ISHSand G. Salesses, Convener. To close thissession an overview of the French chest-nut industry was given by H. Breisch.About 115 reports, oral or posters, werepresented in the following topics: chest-nut industry, chestnut groves manage-ment, biology and physiology, geneticsand breeding, pests and pathogens. It isworth pointing out the development ofnew approaches with the aim of studyingmore precisely the genetic diversity orcreating new improved varieties: molecu-lar biology, marker assisted selection, ge-netic transformation. A large number ofreports were presented about Cryphonec-tria parasitica, this disease being proba-bly the most severe all over the world forchestnut. Most of them are studies aboutthe use, biology or spreading of natural ortransgenic hypovirulent strains. Some in-teresting results were presented aboutink desease (Phytophthora sp) particular-ly by Portuguese scientists. These scien-tific sessions took up 4 days and a oneday technical visit was organized in a

invited to participate. The Workshop wasa success bringing together a number ofexperts from the centre of origin of thecultivated pistachio (P. vera) in the northof Iran and Asian Republics and the mainproducing countries, namely: Iran, Tur-key, Syria, Greece and Italy. The only im-portant world producer missing was Cali-fornia. Over 25 participants from 14 coun-tries: Egypt, Greece, Iran, Italy, Jordan,Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan,Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Uzbe-kistan participated in the meeting. TheCypriot representative (C. Gregoriou) wasunable to attend the Workshop and hispaper was presented by G. Zakynthinos.The Workshop was arranged in four ses-sions: I Pistacia in West and Central Asia,II Pistacia in North Africa, III Pistacia inMediterranean Europe and IV Strengthe-ning the Cooperation on Pistacia. The fi-nal day, a field excursion to a pistachioorchard and the archeological site of Pe-tra was arranged. Each country represen-tative delivered a report on the current si-tuation of the Pistacia genetic resourcesboth cultivated and wild kept in theircountries. Issues on conservation, cha-racterization and evaluation were openlydiscussed. Also aspects related to Pista-cia distribution, hybridization, diversity,genetic erosion, threats and uses wereraised and widely discussed. Ways of po-tencial cooperative work on Pistacia con-servation, characterization and use werealso broadly addressed and discussed.Regarding this subject two groups wereorganized, one on cultivated Pistachio(focal point being G. Zakynthinos fromGreece) and other on wild Pistacia (focalpoint being S. Talhouk from Lebanon).Both focal points were requested to sear-ch for schemes of collaboration (mostlywithin the EU framework) to apply for. In

Participants of the IPGRI-JUST International Pistacia Workshop held at Irbid, Jordan


Some 80 participants (students, mana-gers, technicians, extensionists, nur-serymen and growers) attended the Se-minar which was a big success. Lectu-rers were mainly from Chile (13) butalso from the USA (1) and Spain (1).The two overseas lecturers J. Edstromfrom the University of Davis, Californiaand F.J. Vargas from IRTA Mas Bové,Reus gave lectures on the almond in-dustry in California and the Mediterra-nean countries respectively. Most otherissues related to almond growing (culti-vars, rootstocks, pollination, frost dama-ge, orchard design and management,pest and disease control, harvest andpost harvest were covered by Chileanlecturers. The Seminar was given inSpanish with some English lectures.This Chilean University has edited, inSpanish, the documentation provided bythe lecturers.

III INTERNATIONALSYMPOSIUM ON PISTACHIOS

AND ALMONDS

During the II Symposium at Davis in Au-gust 1997 it was decided that the IIIwould be held at Zaragoza. This sug-gestion was approved by the ExecutiveCommittee of the ISHS at the BrusselsCongress in August 1998 and it is possi-ble now to start the procedures for theorganisation of this Symposium.

It will probably take place during the 20-24 May 2001, allowing the arrival of par-ticipants on Saturday 19 for the registra-tion and first acquaintances on Sunday20. Three days will probably be devotedto scientific presentations and one dayto technical visits. To this stage a provi-sional Scientific Committee has beenproposed as well as a local OrganizingCommitte to start the procedures for thebest development of the Symposium.The Symposium will be held at the Medi-terranean Agronomic Institute of Zara-goza (IAMZ-CIHEAM) at the Aula DeiCampus. From now on I welcome all ofyou to this Symposium as well as anysuggestion for its best success.

R. Socias i CompanyUnidad de Fruticultura SIA-DGA

Apartado 727, 50080 Zaragoza, SpainMontañana 176, 50016 Zaragoza, Spain

Tf: + 34-976-576436Fax: + 34-976-575501

Email: [email protected]

progress made and discuss and even-tually agree proposals presented by theconference. A few non country membershad observers on the Steering Comittee.

Important issues revised were: Institu-tions and capacity building, national pro-grammes on agrobiodiversity conserva-tion (in situ and ex situ), training onPGR conservation and management,public awareness raising, in situ conser-vation of wild relatives, on farm mana-gement and improvement of PGR, utili-zation of PGR (the role of breeders, ge-nebanks, farmers, botanical gardens,etc.) sustaining ex situ collections ratio-nalization of regeneration methods, far-mers rights, collecting, records database storing, underutilized crops, utili-zation of PGR, collaboration with otherregions and information systems. Glo-bally, it seems that good progress is be-ing made although there is a long wayahead to reach satisfactory levels onkeeping world plant genetic diversityglobally.

I. Batlle, as Liaison Officer of the Gene-tic Resources Subnetwork of the FAO-CIHEAM Research Nut Network, partici-pated in the PGRFA Symposium andpresented a joint Research Nut Networkposter entitled: “Nut tree genetic resour-ces conservation and documentation inEurope and the Mediterranean Region”.During the Symposium he reported ondifferent initiatives on nut tree geneticresources conservation and manage-ment taken by our Nut Network and onthe training section reported about theInternational Courses on Economicsand Production of Nut crops organizedevery 4 years with the support of someother institutions. The procceedings ofthe Symposium will be published byIPGRI.

INTERNATIONAL ALMONDSEMINAR HELD ATSANTIAGO, CHILE

The Pontificial Catholic University ofChile, through the Faculty of Agronomyand Forest Engineering organized an In-ternational Seminar on Almond last 30-31 July 1998 at Santiago, Chile. The Se-minar was entitled “Current situationand technological prospects of almond”(Situación actual y perspectivas tecno-lógicas del almendro). J. Castro, lectu-rer of the University was the convener ofthe Seminar. Several local companies,nurseries and international chemicalcompanies sponsored the Seminar.

early 1999, an assessment of the possibi-lities of raising support for proposals willbe made and if so two project proposalswill be drafted and submitted in a nextsuitable call. The papers delivered in theWorkshop (17) as well as the six presen-tations on International Cooperation gi-ven: WANANET (Y. Adham), FAO-CI-HEAM Nut Network (I. Batlle), ACSAD (I.Ibrahim), GREMPA (A.B. Ak) and Euro-pean Initiatives (T. Caruso) will be inclu-ded in the Report of the Workshop whichwill be edited by its convener S. Padulosi.

EUROPEAN SYMPOSIUM ONPLANT GENETIC RESOURCES

FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTUREHELD IN BRAUNSCHWEIG,

GERMANY

This Symposium, which was organizedby the International Plant Genetic Re-sources Institute (IPGRI), Regional Offi-ce for Europe, under the aegis of theConsultative Group on InternationalAgricultural Research Council (CGIAR),was held at BAZ/FAL/ZADI-IGR duringthe week from the 30th June to the 4th

July 1998. The Symposium was calledto assess the implementation of the Glo-bal Plan of Action in Europe. EuropeanProgramme for Crop Genetic ResourcesNetworks (ECP/GR).

Some 160 participants attended theSymposium on PGRFA from many diffe-rent countries (45). Official languageswere English and Russian (with transla-tion). There was a major representationof the cereals and vegetables sectorsrespect to the forages and fruit and nuttree sectors. Regarding participants, theofficial sector was well represented butalso there was an important participa-tion of the non governamental organiza-tions which made a good input to theconference. Ten working sessions and 4working groups were organized. Duringthe working sessions 58 communicatio-ns were presented and 12 review repor-ts were given. Most of the Symposiumwas based on reviewing the phase V(1994/98) of the European System forCrop Genetic Resources Networks(ECP/GR) and the establishment of newproposals for phase VI (1995/2003).Most of the issues were reviewed, dis-cussed and new proposals were agreedto be assessed by the official represen-tatives of each country (ECP/GR Stee-ring Comittee members). Before and af-ter the Symposium, European countryrepresentatives held meetings to assess


TO BE HELD:

Almond and Pistachio

XI GREMPA - Pistachio and AlmondMeetingDate: 1-4 September 1999Place: Sanliurfa - TurkeyConvener: B.E. AkHarran UniversityFaculty of Agriculture63200 - Sanliurfa (Turkey)Tel.: 90 (414) 247 03 83Fax.: 90 (414) 247 03 85 or 90 (414)312 81 44Email: [email protected]

III ISHS International Symposium onPistachios and AlmondsDate: 20-24 May 2001Place: Zaragoza (Spain)Conveners: R. Socias i CompanyUnidad de Fruticultura SIA-DGAApartado 727, 50080 Zaragoza, SpainMontañana 176, 50016 Zaragoza,SpainTel: +34-976-576436Fax: +34-976-575501Email: [email protected]

Hazelnut

V ISHS International Symposium onHazelnutDate: September, 2000Place: Corvallis, OregonConvener: S.A. MehlenbacherOregon State UniversityDepartment of Horticulture4017 Agricultural and Life SciencesBuilding97331 - 7304 Corvallis, OR, USATel: 1 503 737 5467Fax: 1 503 737 - 3479E-mail: [email protected]

Stonepine

International Symposium on StonepineDate: November 1999Place: Valladolid, SpainConvener: G. CatalánAddress: Centro de Recursos Foresta-les - INIAAv. Padre Huidobro, s/n28040 - Madrid, SpainTel: + 34 -91 3476772Fax: + 34 -91 3573107Email: [email protected]

Walnut

ISHS IV International Walnut SymposiumDate: 13-16 September 1999Place: Bordeaux (France)Convener: E. GermainINRA, Station de Recherches Fruitièresde BordeauxBP 81, 33883 Villenave d’Ornon (France)Tel: 33 - 56.843277Fax: 33 - 56.843083Email: [email protected]

I Congreso Internacional de NogaliculturaDate: 16-22 May 1999Place: San Fernando del Valle de Cata-marca, Catamarca, ArgentinaConveners: L.A. Leone and P.A. SoriaPrograma de Servicios de Extension Ru-ralRepública 1098San Fernando de Catamarca, Catamarca(Argentina)Tel: 08 33 37 548Fax: 08 33 37 549Email: [email protected]

Young walnut orchard at Tarra gona, Spain

Pistachio orchard at Lleida, Spain

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The ‘ideal’ references on nut trees tobe included in the NUCIS bibliogra-phic section should be those of recentwork produced in countries of the Net-work: Europe, North Africa and theNear East. However, now that thisNetwork is being extended to interes-ted countries outside the Mediterra-nean Region and as the ISHS News-letter on Nuts is no longer published,this bibliographic section has expan-ded the range of references. Thus re-ferences broadly related to nut treegrowing and economics are most wel-comed. References of work publishedin journals of limited circulation or do-cuments (Master and PhD theses andreports) which are difficult to searchdue to their limited diffusion would bethe most interesting. This is why weask readers to send this type of refe-rences (known as ‘grey literature’ tothe Editor for coming issues of thenewsletter. In addition, bibliographyon nut tree crops appeared in referredjournals can also be included.

ALMOND

Abdallah, A.; Ahumada, M.H.; Gradziel,T.M., 1998. Oil content and fatty acidcomposition of almond kernels from diffe-rent genotypes and Californian produc-tion regions. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., 123(6): 1029-1033.

Andreu, L.; Hopmans, J.W.; Schwankl,L.J., 1997. Spatial and temporal distribu-tion of soil water balance for a drip-irriga-ted almond tree. Agricultural Water Ma-nagement, 35: 123-146.

Ballester, J.; Boskovic, R.; Batlle, I.; Arús,P.; Vargas, F.J.; de Vicente, M.C., 1998.Location of the self-incompatibility geneon the almond linkage map. Plant Bree-ding, 117: 69-72.

Bartolozzi, F.; Warburton, M.L.; Arulse-kar, S.; Gradziel, T.M., 1998. GeneticCharacterization and Relatedness amongCalifornia Almond Cultivars and BreedingLines Detected by Randomly AmplifiedPolymorphic DNA (RAPD) Analysis. J.Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., 123 (3): 381-387.

Benito, A.; Lizar, B., 1998. Diez años deexperimentación de almendro en secano.Navarra Agraria, 111: 19-26.

Cousin, M.; Maataoui, M.E., 1998. Fema-le reproductive organs in self-compatiblealmond (Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A.Webb)


Lauranne and fertilization patterns.Scientia Horticulturae, 72: 287-297.

Egea, J.; Burgos, L., 1998. Fertilidad va-rietal y aclareo (in Spanish). FruticulturaProfesional, XIII (95): 17-20.

Ekinci, S.; Albisu, L.M.; Ameur, M.; AitSalem, T.; Cohen, G.V.; Gómez García,J.C.; Nuñez Pastori, R.J.; Tekelioglu, I.,1998. Modelización de los precios de laalmendra en España. ITEA, 94V (2): 89-103.

Hall, B.H.; Jones, M.K.; Wicks, T.J.,1998. Disease notes or new records. Firstreport of anthracnose of almond in SouthAustralia. Australasian Plant Pathology,27: 127.

Joobeur, T.; Viruel, M.A.; de Vicente,M.C.; Jáuregui, B.; Ballester, J.; Dettori,M.T.; Verde, I.; Truco, M.J.; Messeguer,R.; Batlle, I.; Quarta, R.; Dirlewanger, E.;Arús, P., 1998. Construction of a satura-ted linkage map for Prunus using an al-mond x peach F2 progeny. Theor ApplGenet, 97: 1034-1041.

Martín, M.L.; García, C.; Berenguer, V.;Grané, N., 1998. New Contribution to theChemometric Characterization of AlmondCultivars on the Basis of Their Fatty AcidProfiles. J. Agric. Food Chem., 46: 963-967.

Pascual, M.J.; Pérez, I.; Lluch, M.A.,1998. Cotyledon structure of raw, soakedand roasted almond (Prunus amygdalusL.) (in Spanish). Food Science and Tech-nology International, 4 (3): 189-197.

Seraj, H.G., 1997. National Plant Gene-bank of Iran. Almond Catalog 1997. 41pages.

Socias i Company, R., 1998. Fruit treegenetics at a turning point: the almondexample. Theoretical and Applied Gene-tics, 96 (5): 588-601.

Suelves, M.; Puigdomènech, P., 1998.Specific mRNA accumulation of a genecoding for an 0-methyltransferase in al-mond (Prunus amygdalus, Batsch) flowertissues. Plant Science, 134 (1): 79-88.

CAROB

Batlle, I. 1998. the carob tree (Ceratoniasiliqua L.) in the Mediterranean region:current situation and prospects. MESFINNewsletter 4 (I): 1-7.

Feillet, P.; Roulland, T.M., 1998. Ca-roubin: a gluten-like protein isolated fromcarob bean germ. Cereal Chemistry, 75(4). 488-492.

Ridout, M.J.; Cairns, p.; Brownsey, G.J.;Morris, V.J., 1998. Evidence for intermo-lecular binding between deacetylatedacetan and the glucomannan konjacmannan. Carbohydrated Research, 309(4): 375-379.

Roukas, T., 1998. Citric acid productionfrom carob pod extract by cell recycle ofAspergillus niger ATCC 9142. Food Bio-technology, 12 (1-2): 91-104.

CHESTNUT

Berrocal del Brio, M.; Gallardo Lancho,J.F.; Cardeñoso Herrero, J.M., 1998. ElCastaño. Productor de fruto y madera.Creador de paisaje y protector (in Spa-nish) 288 pp.

Pereira Lorenzo, S.; Fernández López,J., 1997. Los cultivares autóctonos decastaño (Castanea sativa Mill. en Galicia.Colección: Monografías INIA, núm. 99.533 pages.

Portela, E.; Martins, A.; Pires, A.L. (withthe collaboration of A.N. Pereira, C. Go-mes Abreu and J. Portela, 1998. Prácti-cas culturais de limitaçâo da tinta do cas-tanheiro. University of Tras-os-Montes eAlto Douro. NATOS/SFS Programme IIIPo-Chestnut, 63 pp.

Rodríguez Fernández, A.; Fernández deAna Magan, F.J., 1997. Influencia de facto-res climáticos en la productividad de tresespecies del género Boletus asociadas conhíbridos de Castanea. Invest.Agr.: Sist. Re-cur. For., 6 (1-2): 39-51.

ECONOMY

Bounous G., Giacalone G., Mondo M.,1998. An overview of chestnut productionin Cuneo province. Monti e Boschi, 49:1,5-12.

Ekinci S., Gracia A., Albisu L.M., 1998. Thedecision process and the socioeconomicfactors determining almond consumption inSpain. Paper presented at the XXV Interna-tional Horticultural Congress (IHC) held inBrussels, 2-7 August.

Hall C.R., Shafer C.E., Pate L.D., Ander-son C.S., 1998. Characteristics and mar-keting practices of Texas pecan shellers.Faculty Paper Series 98-12. Departmentof Agricultural Economics. Texas A & M.

Johnson D.C., 1998. Economic trends inthe U.S. pecan market with an overviewof the U.S. and world tree nut complex.Fruit and Tree Nuts Situation and OutlookReport, 282, 16-21.

HAZELNUT

Aramburu, J.; Rovira, M., 1998. Efecto dela enfermedad del mosaico del avellanocausada por el virus ApMV, en la produc-ción de avellana Negret (in Spanish). Fru-ticultura Profesional, (99): 44-50.

Berros, B.; Alvarez, C.; Rodriguez, R.,1997. Effect of putrescine-synthesis inhibi-tors on somatic embryogenesis in hazelnut.Angerwandte Botanik, 71 (3/4): 90-93.

Beyhan, N.; Odabas, F., 1997. Researchon the stages of flower development inhazelnut. I. Investigation of flower initia-tion and the stages of flower development(In Turkish). Turkish Journal of Agricultu-re and Forestry, 21 (1): 73-77.

Bostan, S.Z., 1997. The problems and so-lutions in hazelnut growing in Turkey. (InTurkish). Ondolkuzmayis Universitesi, Zi-raat Facültesi Dergisi, 12 (2): 127-133.

Centeno, M.; Rodriguez, R.; Berros, B.;Rodriguez, A., 1997. Endogenous hormo-nal content and somatic embryogeneticcapacity of Corylus avellana L. cotyledo-ns. Plant Cell Reports, 17 (2): 139-144.

Ciampolini, F.; Cresti, M., 1998. Thestructure and cytochemistry of the stigmastyle complex of Corylus avellana L. Ton-da Gentile delle Langhe (Corylaceae).Annals of Botany, 81 (4): 513-518.

Lopez, A.; San Martin, M.B., 1997. Relatio-nship between storage conditions and thebreaking behaviour on hazelnut kernels (inSpanish). Alimentaria, 35 (280): 55-58.

Marsal, J.; Girona, J.; Mata, M., 1997.Leaf water relation parameters in almondcompared to hazelnut trees during a defi-cit irrigation period. Journal of the Ameri-can Society for Horticultural Science, 122(4): 582-587.

Parcerisa, J.; Richardson, D.G.; Rafecas,M.; Codony, R.; Boatella, J., 1997. Fattyacid distribution in polar and nonpolar li-pid classes of hazelnut oil (Corylus ave-llana L.). Journal of Agricultural and FoodChemistry, 45 (10): 3887-3890.

Reed, B.M.; Mentzer, J.; Tanprasert, P.;Yu, X.L., 1998. Interval bacterial contami-nation of micropropagated hazelnut: iden-tification and antibiotic treatment. PlantCell Tissue and Organ Culture, 52 (1-2):67-70.

Rey, M.; Diaz-Sala, C.; Rodriguez, R.,1998. Free polyamine content in leavesand buds of hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.cv. Negret) trees subjected to repeatedsevere pruning. Scientia Horticulturae, 76(1-2): 115-122.


Roversi, A.; Mozzone, G., 1998. Techni-che de forzatura per margotte di ceppaiadi nocciolo (in Italian). Inform. Agrar.,24/98 : 71-75.

Santos, A.; Silva, A.P.; Rosa, E., 1998.Shoot growth and yield of hazelnut(Corylus avellana L.) and the influence ofclimate: Ten years of observations. Jour-nal of Horticultural & Biotechnology, 73(2): 145-150.

Savage, G.P.; Mc Weil, D.L.; Duta, P.C.,1997. Lipid composition and oxidativestability of oils in hazelnuts (Corylus ave-llana L.) grown in New Zealand. Journalof the American Oil Chemist’s Soc., 74(6): 755-759.

Tous, J.; Plana, J., 1997-1998. Dissenyde plantacions modernes d’avellaner. Ca-talunya Rural i Agrària, 41: 9-13.

PECAN

He, Y.; Levi, A.; Wetzstein, H.Y., 1998.Sequence and developmental expressionof a seed storage protein gene in pecan.Journal of Horticultural Science & Biote-chnology, 73 (6): 828-830.

Lagarda, A.; Medina, Mª del C.; Arreola,J., 1998. Efecto de la poda y aclareo deárboles adultos sobre la producción denuez del nogal pecanero (in Spanish withsummary in English). ITEA, 94V (3): 148-157.

Rice, W., 1997. USDA Pecan BreedingProgram Update. NNGA, 88th Annual Re-port: 58-64.

Thompson, T.E., 1998. Soluble solidsconcentrations in pecan liquid endospermof several pecan clones. HortScience, 33(7): 1145-1146.

Wood, B.W.; Reilly, C.C., 1998. Suscepti-bility of Pecan to Black Pecan Aphids.HortScience, 33 (5): 798-801.

STONEPINE

González, M.V.; Rey, M.; Tavazza, R.; LaMalfa, Stefano, Cuozzo, L.; Ancora, G.,1998. In Vitro Adventitious Shoot Forma-tion on Cotyledons of Pinus pinea. HortS-cience, 33 (4): 749-750.

Gordon, T.R.; Okamoto, D.; Storer, A.J.;Wood, D.L., 1998. Susceptibility of FiveLandscape Pines to Pitch Canker Disea-se, Caused by Fusarium subglutinans f.sp. pini. HortScience, 33 (5): 868-871.

Hignard, L.; Pontoppidan, A., 1998. Elpino piñonero. Edit. Akal. Madrid, 84 pp.

Montero, G.; Candela, J.A. et al., 1998.Manual de claras para repoblaciones dePinus pinea L. Junta de Andalucía. Espa-ña. 47 pp.

Prada, M.A.; Gordo, J.; De Miguel, J.;Mutke, S.; Catalán, G.; Iglesias, S.; Gill,L., 1997. Las regiones de procedencia dePinus pinea. Ministerio de Medio Ambien-te. Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacio-nales. Madrid. 108 pp.

Rey, M.; González, M.V.; Ordás, R.J.; Ta-vazza, R.; Ancora, G., 1996. Factorsaffecting transient gene expression in cul-tured radiata pine cotyledons followingparticle bombardment. Physiol. Plant, 96:630-636.

PISTACHIO

Fabbri, A.; Ferguson, L.; Polito, V.S.,1998. Crop load related deformity of de-veloping Pistacia vera cv ‘Kerman’ nuts.Scientia Horticulturae, 77: 219-234.

Ghazanfari, A.; Wulfsohn, D.; Irudayaraj,J., 1998. Machine vision grading of pista-chio nuts using gray-level histogram. Ca-nadian Agricultural Engineering, 40 (1):61-66.

Golan, A.; Peri, I.; Birk, Y.; Smirnoff, P.,1998. Inflorescence Bud Proteins of Pis-tacia Vera. Trees Structure and Function,12 (7): 415-419.

Golan, A.; Shachak, A., 1998. Immunolo-gical cross-reaction between bud andbark proteins of dormant deciduous trees.Scientia Horticulturae, 73: 167-173.

IPGRI, 1997. Descriptors for pistachio(Pistacia vera L.). International Plant Ge-netic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy, 51pp.

IPGRI, 1998. Descriptors for Pistaciaspp. (excluding Pistacia vera L.). Interna-tional Plant Genetic Resources Institute,Rome, Italy, 48 pp.

Mahoney, N.; Molyneux, R.J., 1998. Con-tamination of tree nuts by aflatoxigenicfungi: Aflatoxin content of closed-shellpistachios. Journal of Agricultural andFood Chemistry, 46 (5): 1906-1909.

McGovern, P.E.; Glusker, D.L.; Exner,L.J., 1996. Neolithic resinated wine. Na-ture, 381, June: 480-481.

Mulas, M.; Abeltino, P.; Brigaglia, N.,1998. Evaluation of Pistacia lentiscus L.genetic resources to select ecotypes ha-ving high efficienty in the colonisation ofmarginal lands. Acta Horticulturae, (457):279-286.

Nzima, M.D.S.; Martin, G.C.; Nishijima,C., 1999. Effect of fall defoliation andspring shading on shoot carbohydrateand growth parameters among individualbranches of alternate bearing ‘Kerman’pistachio trees. J. Am. Soc. Hort. Sci.,124 (1): 52-60.

Stevenson, M.T.; Shackel, K.A., 1998. Al-ternative bearing in pistachio as a mas-ting phenomenon: construction cost of re-production versus vegetative growth andstorage. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., 123 (6):1069-1075.

Tzoutzoukou, C.G.; Pontikis, C.A.; Tolia-Marioli, A., 1998. Effects of gibberellicacid on bloom advancement in femalepistachio (Pistacia vera L.). Journal ofHorticultural Science & Biotechnology, 73(4): 517-526.

WALNUT

Burtin, P.; Jay-Allemand, C.; Charpentier,I.P., 1998. Natural wood colouring pro-cess in Juglans sp depends on nativephenolic compound accumulated in thetransition zone between sapwood andheartwood. Trees, 12: 258-264.

Claudot, A.C.; Ernst, D.; Sandermann, H.;Drouet, A., 1997. Chalcone synthase acti-vity and polyphenolic compounds of shoottissues from adult and rejuvenated walnuttrees. Planta, 203: 275-282.

Coggeshall, M.V.; Beineke, W.F., 1997.Black Walnut Vegetative Propagation:The Challenge Continues. 88th AnnualReport of the Northern Nut Growers As-sociation: 83-92.

Dickum, G., 1997. Persian Walnut Pitfa-lls. 88th Annual Report of the Northern NutGrowers Association: 148-149.

Domes, R., 1998. A new species of thegenus Anthocoptes (Phyllocoptinae: Erio-phyidae) on Juglans regia L. Acarologia,XXXIX (1): 69-71.

El Euch, C.; Jay-Allemand, C.; Pastuglia,M.; Doumas, P.; Charpentier, J.P.; Cape-lli, P.; Jouanin, L., 1998. Expression ofantisense chalcone synthase RNA intransgenic hybrid walnut microcuttings.Effect on flavonoid content and rootingability. Plant Molecular Biology, 38: 467-479.

Grond, S.D., 1997. The Effect of SelectedNutrients on the Growth of Black Walnut(Juglans nigra) Trees. 88th Annual Reportof the Northern Nut Growers Association:159-169.


Harran University, Sanllurfa, Turkey,79 p.

Fasihi Harandi, O., 1996. Genetic stu-dies on wild and cultivated Pistachioof Iran (in Farsi). Master thesis. AzadUniversity of Karaj, College of Agri-culture, Karaj, Iran. 141 pp.

Kaplan, A., 1997. A research on deter-mination of the agricultural mechani-sation applications and post-harvesttechnologies at the pistachio nut pro-duction (in Turkish with summary inEnglish). Harran University, Sanliurfa,Turkey, 90 p.

Shachak, A., 1996. Characterization ofa dormancy abundant protein from pis-tachio. M. Sc thesis (in Hebrew withabstract in English). Hebrew Universityof Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion Universi-ty of the Negev, Israel. 57 pp.

PROCEEDINGS

Proceedings of the “Second Interna-tional Symposium on Pistachios andAlmonds”, Davis, California, USA,1997 (L. Ferguson and D. Kester,eds.), Acta Horticulturae 470, ISHS(1998), 611 pp. This book contains 85presentations (papers or posters).

Proceedings of the ‘Convegno nazio-nale sul castagno’. Cison di Valmasi-no (Treviso), Italy, 1997. (R. Giannini,Editor). This book contains 38 papersand 37 posters (in Italian), 621 pp.

Book of abstracts (oral communicatio-ns) of the II International ChestnutSymposium. Bordeaux, 1998 (G. Sa-lesses ed.). This book contains thesummaries of the oral communicatio-ns and the programme.

Book of abstracts (posters) of the II Interna-tional Chestnut Symposium. Bordeaux,

Kim, S.H.; Lee, K.S.; Son, J.K.; Je, G.H.;Lee, J.S.; Lee, C.H.; Cheong, C.J., 1998.Cytotoxic compounds from the roots ofJuglans mandshurica. Journal of NaturalProducts, 61 (5): 643-645.

Ponder, Jr. F., 1997. The Use of TreeShelters in Black Walnut Culture. 88th An-nual Report of the Northern Nut GrowersAssociation: 130-137.

Ponder, Jr. F.; Jones, J.E.; Haines, J.,1998. Annual applications of N, P, and Kfor four years mode rately increase nutproduction in black walnut. Hort Science,33 (6): 1011-1013.

Scaltsoyiannes, A.; Tsoulpha, P.; Panet-sos, K.P.; Moulalis, D., 1997. Effect ofGenotype on Micropropagation of WalnutTrees (Juglans regia). Silvae Genetica,46 (6): 326-332.

Siefert, J.R., 1997. Chemical Weed Con-trol Before and After Planting Walnut. 88th

Annual Report of the Northern NutGrowers Association: 138-147.

Van Sambeek, J.W.; Lambus, L.J.; Pree-ce, J.E., 1997. Production of EpicormicSprouts on Branch Segments of AdultBlack Walnut for In Vitro Culture. 88th An-nual Report of the Northern Nut GrowersAssociation: 93-104.

MASTERS

Adaçkesen, N., 1998. An investigationon determination of yield and quality onpistachios grown at Birecik province (inTurkish with summary in English ). Ha-rran University, Sanllurfa, Turkey, 59 p.

Arpaci, S., 1998. An investigation ondetermination of transplanting successand growing of different ages somePistacia species seedlings transplan-ted at different time at field conditions(in Turkish with summary in English ).

1998. (G. Salesses ed.). This book con-tains the summaries of the 63 posters pre-sented and list of participants.

Book of the lectures given at the In-ternational Seminar on Almond held atSantiago, Chile, 1998 (J. Castro, T.Castro and C. Sotomayor, editors).This well edited book, in Spanish,contains the 18 lectures on almondgrowing given at the Seminar, 190 pp.

REPORTS

Golan, A.; Saleh, N.A.M.; Van Damme, P.,1998. Establishment of germplasm collec-tions of Mediterranean Pistacia. Report tothe Commission of the European communi-ties, 118 pages.

THESES

Ballester, J., 1998. Localització i anàlisi de ca-ràcters d’interès agronòmic de l’ametller (in Ca-talan). Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,Spain, 193 pages.

Boskovic, R., 1998. Study of inheritance andlinkage of isoenzymes in cherry and of in-compatibility of rosaceous tree crops byanalysis of stylar ribonucleases. PhD Thesis,University of London, England, 236 pages.

Jáuregui, B., 1998. Localización demarcadores moleculares ligados a ca-racteres agronómicos en un cruza-miento interespecífico almendro x me-locotonero (in Spanish). Universitat deBarcelona, Spain, 183 pages.

Joobeur, T., 1998. Construcción de un mapade marcadores moleculares y análisis gené-tico de caracteres agronómicos en Prunus (inSpanish with summary in English). Universityof Lleida. ETSIA, Spain, 161 pages.


THE FAO-CIHEAM INTER-REGIONAL COOPERATIVE RESEARCH NETWORK ON NUTS

Network Coordinator: F.J. VargasEditor: I. BatlleEditorial staff: M. LannoyeTypeset by: Carácter Gráfico, S.L.

ISSN 1020-0797

Network Coordination Centre Coordinator

Nut tree crops Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries IRTA F. J. VargasCentre de Mas BovéDepartament d’Arboricultura MediterràniaApartat 415. E 43280 Reus (Spain)Tel: 34-977 343252 Fax: 34-977 344055E-mail: [email protected]

Subnetworks Liaison Centres Liaison Officers

Almond

Hazelnut Ankara University. Faculty of Agriculture A.I.KöksalDepartment of Horticulture06110 - Ankara (Turkey)Tel: (312) 3170550 Fax: (312)3179119E-mail: [email protected]

Walnut Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique INRA E. GermainStation de Recherches FruitièresCentre de Recherches de BordeauxBP. 81 -33883 Villenave d'Ornon (France )Tel: (56) 843082 Fax: (56) 843083E-mail: [email protected]

Pistachio KSU. Faculty of Agriculture. N. KaskaDepartment of Horticulture. Kahraman Maras (Turkey)Tel: (344) 2237666 Fax: (344) 2230048E-mail: [email protected]

Pecan Cukurova University. Faculty of Agriculture Ö. TuzcuDepartment of Horticulture. Adana-01330 (Turkey)Tel: (322) 3386388 Fax: (322) 4584909E-mail: [email protected]

Chestnut Universitá degli Studi di Torino G. BounousDipartamento di Colture Arboree. Cattedra di arboriculturaVia Leonardo Da Vinci, 44. 10095 Grugliasco (TO) (Italy)Tel: 39-011 6708653 Fax: 39-011 6708658E-mail: [email protected]

Stonepine Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología G. CatalánAgraria y Alimentaria INIA Centro de InvestigaciónForestal CIFOR. Av. P. Huidobro, s/n, 28040-Madrid (Spain).Tel: 34-91 3476772 Fax: 34-91 3573107E-mail: [email protected]

Genetic Resources Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries IRTA I. BatlleCentre de Mas BovéDepartament d’Arboricultura MediterràniaApartat 415. E 43280 Reus (Spain)Tel: 34-977 343252 Fax:34-977 344055E-mail: ignasi. [email protected]

Economics Servicio de Investigación Agraria SIA L.M. AlbisuDiputación General de AragónApartado 727. 50080 - Zaragoza (Spain)Tel. +34-976 576 361 Fax: +34-976 575 501E-mail: [email protected]

FAO Regional Office for Europe REU I. AlvarezViale delle Terme di Caracalla00100 Roma (Italy)Tel: 39 06 670 527 87 Fax: 39 06 570 556 34E-mail: [email protected]

CIHEAM Instituto Agronómico Mediterráneo de Zaragoza IAMZ D. GabiñaApartado 20250080 Zaragoza (Spain)Tel: 34-976 576013 Fax: 34-976 576377E-mail: [email protected]

IRTA- Mas BovéDepartament d'Arboricultura Mediterrània.Apartat, 415.E- 43280 REUS (Spain)Tel.: +34-977 34 32 52Fax: +34-977 34 40 55E-mail: [email protected]

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