Two year-old nursery stocks of Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold subsp. pallasiana (Lamb.) Holmboe) from nine provenances were examined for morphological properties such as height, root collar diameter, sturdiness and shoot: root ratio. The stocks were grown in the Eskişehir, Eğirdir and Seydişehir forest nurseries in semi-arid sites in Turkey. It was found that all of the seedlings grown in Eğirdir were substandard but, the ones grown in Eskişehir and Seydişehir met the criteria of the Turkish Standards Institute (TS 2265 / February 1988). According to the seedling quality criteria of the Eurepean Community (EC), while all of the nursery stocks from Eğirdir were substandard eightly-three per cent of samples from Seydişehir and eighteen per cent from Eskişehir were quality seedlings. Anatolian black pine stocks should be graded into three root-collar diameter classes; and seedlings less than 5.0 cm in height and 3.0 mm in diameter should not be used in plantations. The Turkish Forest Tree Seedling Standards should be revised without delay, taking the standards of the EC into consideration.

Two year-old nursery stocks of Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold subsp. pallasiana (Lamb.) Holmboe) from nine provenances were examined for morphological properties such as height, root collar diameter, sturdiness and shoot: root ratio. The stocks were grown in the Eskişehir, Eğirdir and Seydişehir forest nurseries in semi-arid sites in Turkey. It was found that all of the seedlings grown in Eğirdir were substandard but, the ones grown in Eskişehir and Seydişehir met the criteria of the Turkish Standards Institute (TS 2265 / February 1988). According to the seedling quality criteria of the Eurepean Community (EC), while all of the nursery stocks from Eğirdir were substandard eightly-three per cent of samples from Seydişehir and eighteen per cent from Eskişehir were quality seedlings. Anatolian black pine stocks should be graded into three root-collar diameter classes; and seedlings less than 5.0 cm in height and 3.0 mm in diameter should not be used in plantations. The Turkish Forest Tree Seedling Standards should be revised without delay, taking the standards of the EC into consideration.