Study of the morphological characteristics of acorns and growth parameters of cork oak seedlings of two provenances: from the North-East (Jijel) and the North-West (Tlemcen) of Algeria

Abstract

Knowing the germinative properties of seeds can be used to define precisely the conditions of their use according to the objectives. The aim of this work is to study the morphological characteristics of cork oak (Quercus suber L.) acorns from the Hafir (Tlemcen) and El Aouana (Jijel) forests and to test the effects of these characteristics on acorn germination, growth and development of seedlings. To achieve this, quantitative variables (length, width and weight) and qualitative variables (shape and color) were measured for a set of 500 sampled acorns. Thus, an experimental device has been adopted under forestry seedling production conditions. The findings of this study show that tested acorns have biometric variations, which made it possible to classify them into different classes of length, width and weight. But these variations have no effect on the germination of the two categories of acorns (small and large), with a germination rate varying between 90 and 95% for both provenances studied. On the other hand, there was a difference according to acorn size for seedling growth parameters.