DEMONSTRATION CENTER FOR THE MICROPROPAGATION OF FOREST TREE SPECIES IN MONTEROTONDO MARITTIMO (GR).

The Center is endowed with a laboratory furnished with all the instruments necessary for tissue culture. Near to the lab there are greenhouses, heated with geothermy, covering a surface of 13000 m and a warehouse. At this moment guest quarters to be used by students or researchers who will cooperate with the Center in its scientific activity are being completed. The research programs for the next years will estend over all three branches:

1. Propagation of Italian rare or precious forest tree species and exceptional specimens.

   This program is based on the census of all the trees of historical or botanical interest present on the national territory, started in 1982 by M.A.F.; the survey has already provided 22000 data. Among this, 150 plants of extraordinary value have been selected. The aim of "in vitro" propagation of these specimens is to insure the maintenance of germplasm of very old plants whose reproduction ability has been damaged by old age or by environmental factors, so making the formation of progeny extremely difficult if not impossible. Greater attention is being directed to indigenous species close to extintion, such as Abies nebrodensis, or species present in Italy at the edge of its specific area as Quercus aegilops; however the oldest and representative specimens of common species, as chestnuts of Vallerano (VT), are also included.

2. Oaks propagation.

   In the last years, the trend of the international market of wood has determined a rising demand for oak timber. Following this tendency, in autumn 1985, within the IUFRO, a group was formed to study "Genetics and Breeding of Quercus Species". In Italy, oaks represent, along with chestnuts and

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