Towards making willows pilot species for coppicing production

Abstract

Long and short term breeding of willows for energy production in Sweden and basic research related to these activities is presented. The strategy is to concentrate on one species, S. viminalis, to functionally separate long and short-term breeding and to emphasize general biological research on Salix. In the long term breeding we have a sub-divided breeding population where we aim for inbreeding in the sublines. The selection of cultivars is based on both family and individual selection and cloning is used in this process. The basic research is concerned with the components of growth, the genetics of small populations and host-parasite interaction. Key words: genetics, long term breeding, S. viminalis, subdivided breeding population, components of growth, small populations, host-parasite interaction.