Artificial hybridization of Pinus sylvestris L. and Pinus mugo Turra

Artificial hybridization experiments revealed a relatively high degree of crossability between Pinus sylvestris and P. mugo, ranging between 0.15 and 0.98. Differences between P. sylvestris x P. mugo and reciprocal hybrids of the species were observed. Hybrid seeds of P. sylvestris x P. mugo shared higher germination potential than seeds from selling, controlled intraspecific crossing, and open pollination. The corresponding value in reciprocal combination was slightly lower. The hybrid nature of the seeds obtained was shown by restriction analysis of chloroplast DNA (cp DNA) using the trnV-trnH/Hinf I primer-enzyme combination.