| Abstract | Leaf terpenes of 420 jack pines from 43 sites (Petawawa provenances) in eastern North America were analyzed by gas–liquid chromatography (GLC). In most trees the major components were α-pinene, β-pinene, myrcene, car-3-ene, limonene, β-phellandrene, and bornyl acetate. Eighteen other monoterpenes were identified and 13 sesquiterpenes were characterized by their spectral properties and GLC retention times. These data were analyzed by centroid cluster analysis of the mean-squared Euclidean distances, which showed that jack pine is a diverse species of two major terpene types with eight minor types and a few outlying individual trees. With the exception that the minor clusters and outliers tend to occur at the fringes of the jack pine range, there is no obvious geographic pattern to these clusters. |
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