IN SITU CONSERVATION OF NARROW CROWNED NORWAY SPRUCE IDEOTYPE (PICEA ABIES PENDULA FORM AND COLUMNARIS VARIETY) IN ROMANIA

The study aims to identify Norway spruce populations with narrow crown form, within each provenance regions across the Romanian Carpathians, and to evaluate the stability of the narrow-crowned spruce compared with the classical crown form under different environmental conditions. Narrow crowned Norway spruce ideotype may presents superior resistance to wind and snow breaks compared with the classical crown form of spruce (pyramidalis). The existence of pendula and columnaris trees in 25 populations was investigated and the compliance of the necessary criteria for inclusion in FGR's Catalogue was checked. The selected populations were mapped, the narrow crown trees were described and cores were collected for determination of the wood density. The narrow crown trees present favourable results for growth traits, tree slenderness, crown diameter and wood density, compared with the trees reported with normal crown form, while natural pruning was the only unfavourable trait. For wood density, narrow crowned trees were superior in all plots but only one time the differences were significant (p < 0.05). For the first time in Romania, seven populations comprising 249 narrow crowned spruce trees were selected for their inclusion in the Romanian FGR's Catalogue with the aim of in situ conservation of this ideotype.