The effect of crown position and tree age on resin-canal density in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) needles

Resin canals are an important taxonomic characteristic in conifers. In this paper we examined within- and between-needle variation of the cross-sectional number of resin canals in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). Variation within needles was determined from 12 free-hand sections taken along the whole length of foliage collected from a common crown position. The effect of crown location and tree age on resin-canal density was also examined from the midpoint cross sections of 450 Scots pine needles collected from interior and exterior locations from the top, middle, and bottom of 25 crowns of trees ranging in age from 8 to 70 years. Within-needle resin-canal density varied with needle length. Two resin canals were typical for the basal and the terminal needle cross sections. There were 3.2 and 8.6 resin canals for cross sections taken from 10 and 30% of the needle length from the basal sheath, respectively. Resin-canal density was largest, and relatively constant, between 30 and 80% of the needle length. We found significant differences in the cross-sectional number of needle resin canals, as influenced by crown positions and tree age. Resin-canal density increased with foliage height. Foliage from the top one-third of crowns had significantly more resin canals than foliage from the bottom. Foliage collected from the crown interior (proximal to the stem) had fewer resin canals than samples from the crown edge. Resin-canal density increased from 7.1 to 10.3 as tree age increased from 8 to 70 years. These results suggest that crown position and tree age need to be incorporated into the sampling protocols used to establish species standards in resin-canal density, at least for Scots pine, if meaningful comparisons are to be made.