"provenance"

[monique at bio.tamu.edu]

>I have been unable to find a textbook definition of "provenance"
>as applied to genetic variability in plant populations.  I'm 
>somewhat unfamiliar with the word, but when "genetic variability
>at the provenance level" is discussed, I take it to mean 
>within-species, but between location-of-origin, variability such as
>might be measured in a common garden experiment using plants grown 
>from seeds collected at different geographical locations.  Am I 
>correct?

Yes!  Provenance can play a big part when selecting breeding stock.  Big 
differences exist in drought tolerance, cold resistance, disease resistance, 
size, etc. between populations in different regions.

>Rod Pennington
>USDA-ARS
>Temple, TX
>rodpenn at brcsun0.tamu.edu

Hey!  Another Aggie!  Hello from the other side of campus!


Monique Reed
Herbarium Botanist
Biology Dept.