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| Figure 3. Collecting cones from the tops of balsam fir. |
Research initiated in the early 1970s at The Ohio State University's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OSU/OARDC) found that trees of balsam fir grown from seed collected from stands in Canaan Valley, one of the isolated populations in the mountains of northern West Virginia, had a number of characteristics that made them desirable for planting as Christmas trees. Those characteristics included adaptability to somewhat "wetter" soils than trees of Fraser fir; later bud break on trees in the spring than those of Fraser fir and more northerly origins of balsam fir from Pennsylvania and New York; and more lateral limbs on shoots between major whorls than for trees of Fraser fir and the New York and Pennsylvania origins of balsam fir (Brown 1983). Subsequent research found that trees of the Canaan Valley origin also leafed out considerably later in the spring than trees of a Nova Scotia origin of balsam fir and somewhat later than those of Fraser fir (Brown 1998, Brown 1999).
As noted previously and as shown in Figure 4, small isolated populations of balsam fir occur at three locations in West Virginia in addition to those in Canaan Valley which were used in previous research at OSU/OARDC. It seemed probable that trees from those other stands might also have promise for use as Christmas trees. The purpose of the research reported here was to study genetic variation in trees from different stands and seed sources of balsam fir from the four West Virginia populations.
In this and previous research at OSU/OARDC, the taxonomic classification of balsam fir proposed by Thor and Barnett (1974), Abies balsamea var. phanerolepis, has been used to identify trees of the populations of balsam fir found in the mountains of northern West Virginia. This should not be interpreted that results presented here and in other studies at OSU/OARDC relate to trees from other populations that might be identified as var. phanerolepis.
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| Figure 3. Collecting cones from the tops of balsam fir. |