Fait partie de [OMA122]

2017 - 132 p.

Impact of the Dry Cone Syndrome on commercial kernel yield of stone pine cones

Mutke S., Calama R., Nasrallah Neaymeh E., Roques A.

The economic relevance of Mediterranean stone pine is based on the harvest of its cones for extracting the edible Mediterranean pine nuts kernels. Recently, a severe loss of kernel-per-cone yield has been reported from cone processing industries: up to half of the extracted seeds are empty or contain only withered remains of the kernel. Additionally, a high percentage of small unripe conelets abort before maturity. The coincident emergence of both phenomena in several countries has coined the common name Dry Cone Syndrome (DCS). DCS has spread out all over the Mediterranean range of stone pine in the last four years, after first reports from Italy ten years ago. If persisting, DCS is regarded as a serious threat for commercial pine nut harvesting, an activity essential for the economic sustainability of Mediterranean pine forests and plantations, as well as for the cone processing industry in Europe, with a market of several hundred million euros annually. Cone processors surveys and reports in the framework of the stone pine group within the FAO-CIHEAM Network on Nuts have allowed plotting the spread of the syndrome throughout the Mediterranean, and its comparison with the invasion of Europe by the exotic seed bug Leptoglossus occidentalis, a seed-feeding pests known to produce analogous damages in more than 40 conifer species in the Northern America and Europe.

Mots-clés    

PINUS PINEA

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Mutke S., Calama R., Nasrallah Neaymeh E., Roques A. Impact of the Dry Cone Syndrome on commercial kernel yield of stone pine cones. In : Carrasquinho I. (ed.), Correia A.C. (ed.), Mutke S. (ed.). Mediterranean pine nuts from forests and plantations. Zaragoza : CIHEAM, 2017. p. 79-84. (Options Méditerranéennes : Série A. Séminaires Méditerranéens; n. 122). 2. International Meeting on Mediterranean Stone Pine for Agroforestry : AgroPine2016, 2016/05/18-20, Oeiras (Portugal). http://om.ciheam.org/om/pdf/a122/00007245.pdf