Terpenes for Indirect Selection of Growth Potential in Rocky Mountain Douglas-Fir

Possibilities of using terpene composition for indirect selection of growth potential were explored for Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir. Volatile leaf oil analyses were made on 170 5-year-old seedlings that represented full-sib hybrid families, wind-pollinated parental lines of inland origin, and wind-pollinated parental lines of coastal origin. Correlation analyses showed that terpenes could not be used efficiently for indirect selection of growth potential in the inland variety. But, terpenes may be useful in selecting parental lines in programs of intervarietal hybridization