Proportion of vegetation reproduction in Mexican Populus tremuloides Michx. populations on the Sierra Madre Occidental

Resumen

Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is the most widely distributed tree species in North America. It grows from Alaska across the Northwest Territories to Quebec and Newfoundland and south to Virginia, Missouri, Nebraska, and Central Mexico (Sierra Madre Occidental and Oriental). It colonizes all Canadian provinces and most of the states of the United States, but also some states in Mexico. In many parts of its distribution, this aspen is a unique and essential keystone species and is listed as a dominant species in over 100 habitat, plant community, and vegetation typings. P. tremuloides is one of the most important timber trees in Canada and the United States. In some forest regions, therefore, breeding programs have been developed for improving trembling aspen and aspen hybrids for fiber and wood production. Several authors reported that P. tremuloides in the United States and Canada rarely reproduces sexually, but commonly regenerates through vegetative reproduction, or asexual root suckering. Disturbances, such as fire, often trigger root suckering that permits rapid regeneration and can occasionally lead to sexual regeneration. Clone size is typically under 0.04 ha, but clones can cover many hectares. But there is a lack of reproduction information of Mexican trembling aspen (Worrall et al., 2013). Therefore, we hypothesized that Mexican P. tremuloides populations on the Sierra Madre Occidental also exhibit a high proportion ofvegetative reproduction, which was tested using AFLP marker.