Regional, provenance and family variation in cold hardiness of western white pine (Pinus monticola Dougl. ex. D. Don)

Thirty-seven seedlots of western white pine (Pi nus mont i col a Doug. ex. D. Don) were tested for frost hardiness to determine how transferable seed would be from different seed sources within white pine's coast and interior ranges in British Columbia. Twenty-nine seedlots represented the coast and interior of British Columbia (BC), two were from coastal United States (US), three were from interior US and three were hybrids between interior US and interior BC parents. Detached needles were exposed to a series of freezing temperatures in a programable freezer and relative hardiness was calculated as the length of injured needle expressed as a percentage of total needle length 10 days after freezing. Seasonal progress in hardening was tested using five dates in the autumn of 1989. Seedlings were maintained at the University of British Columbia nursery. Testing also was carried out from samples collected on separate dates from Nakusp in the BC interior and from Ladysmith, a coastal BC site. There was a statistically significant (p