Epsilon Open Archive

Abstract

Only few provenances of wild service have been tested in field experiments. This paper summarizes results from three German provenance experiments at Lutter and Grohnde in Lower Saxony and in Liliental near Kaiserstuhl in Baden-Württemberg. The experiments were established in 1979 and include progeny from a total of nine populations of wild service tree in Germany, Luxemburg, France, the Czech Republic and Austria (Figure 1). There are large variations among provenances regarding growth performance and stem quality (Table 1 and Figure 2). The best provenances in the experiments originate from northern Bavaria in Germany and western Lorraine in France. It is recommended only to use nursery stock and seeds of known origin. Alternatively, local tests should be conducted prior to any large-scale planting.