The role of epicormic shoot production in maintaining foliage in old Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas-fir) trees II.   Basal reiteration from older branch axes

Hiroaki Ishii, E. David Ford and C. Elaine Dinnie

Canadian Journal of Botany 80: 916-926. 2002.

Abstract

Basal reiteration (epicormic shoot production from older branch axes) occured continuously and repeatedly in branches of 450-yr-old Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesii (coastal Douglas-fir) trees reproducing sections of branches comprising less than 200 to as many as 10,000 foliated shoots. Basal reiteration occured mostly from primary and secondary branch axes, but also occured from higher-order axes if lower-order axes had died-back. Basal reiteration occurred in distal sections of upper-crown branches, while it occurred in more proximal sections of middle- and lower-crown branches, indicating that basal reiteration works to distribute foliage more uniformly within branches that have reached maximum size. Basal reiteration occured repeatedly producing two to six generations of reiterated axes within branches. Less than 22.5% of foliated shoots on branches were produced by sequential branching of the primary axis. Basal reiteration also maintained a constant rate of new shoot production within the branch. Growth-ring analysis showed that basal reiteration occured over a wide range of axis ages (5-58 yrs). In conjunction with previous studies, we showed that adaptive reiteration of various architectural units by epicormic shoot production is an inherent process that maintains foliage in the crown of old P. menziesii trees.