Crown architecture of Larix laricina saplings: shoot preformation and neoformation and their relationships to shoot vigour

Abstract

Resting buds from five locations on long shoots in each of six crown positions were compared for 30 Larix laricina (Du Roi) K. Koch saplings. At each locus, bud sizes, numbers of bud scales and preformed leaf primordia (basal and axial for long-shoot buds), and apical widths were positively related to parent-shoot length. Along individual shoots, (i) terminal and lateral long-shoot buds contained fewer basal-leaf primordia than the more proximal short-shoot buds; (ii) terminal buds contained the most bud scales and axial-leaf primordia; and (iii) numbers of bud scales increased, while numbers of axial-leaf primordia generally decreased, basipetally among lateral buds. Comparison of bud leaf content with leaves on elongated shoots by regression showed that numbers of preformed and neoformed leaves increased with shoot length, but numbers of neoformed leaves did so to a greater degree. Internode lengths, numbers of leaves per lateral bud produced, and leaf lengths were greater on neoformed than on preformed shoot segments. Because of their capacity for neoformed growth following preformed growth and because of increases in internode lengths among all axial leaves, shoots from subjacent lateral buds replaced experimentally decapitated tree leaders (terminal buds) in one season, with little or no loss of height growth.