Loblolly Pine Provenance Variation in Juvenile Wood Properties

The wood basic density(BD), fiber length(FL) and latewood percentage(LP) of loblolly pine provenances were evaluated based on four 9-year-old provenance tests in Guangxi,Guangdong,Jiangxi and Zhejiang.The result showed that the provenance differ ence was significant for BD but not notable for FL and LP in every test location.The geographical variation patterns of wood properties of provenances were mainly two-way clinal ones influenced firstly by longitude and secondly by latitude.The BD of the western provenances were the highest,of the northern ones the next,and of south coast ones the lowest, the FL of the south coast provenances were the longest and of east coast ones the shortest, inland and northern provenances had the higher LP.The BD of loblolly pine were also different between test locations, decreasing from south to north.The provenance×test location effect for BD was small,most of the provenances displayed relatively higher stability.BD and LP were negatively correlated with the tree growth and yield traits,but FL was not correlated regularly with the tree growth traits,the three wood property traits also had complicated relationship with tree form traits.