Quantitative and qualitative indicators of cone and seed for identification of two Juniper species in Golesan province

Among the Six native species of Juniperus genus in Iran,  J. polycarpos and J. excelsa have highest frequent and geographical distribution on the highlands of the country and play a crucial role in the natural ecosystem of presented area. Due to the similar appearance of mentioned species, it's difficult to identify them in the nature. In this study, quantitative traits indicators of cone and seed with the aim of identification and separation of two species of Juniper were evaluated. For this purpose, ten mother trees were selected separately and from each tree, 1000 cones of fruit were collected and quantitative traits of cones and seeds were measured. The analysis of cone traits showed that the two species had a significant difference in weight, length and width of cone, so that all of these indicators in J. polycarpos are higher than J. excelsa. While analysis on quantitative characteristics of seeds including length, width and weight did not show any significant differences, the seed vigor index indicators showed that J. polycarpos produces a significant higher vigorous seed than J. excelsa. In general, the length, width and weight of cones can be used as a proper index for differentiation and identification of J. polycarpos and J. J. excelsa species and the same indices of seeds are not suitable for this purpose.