Provenance research represents the tool to identify the seed sources of wood with desired traits. Growth and density characteristics are widely regarded as key traits in determining wood quality. We compare the cambium reaction of provenances to within-growing-season climatic events. Scots pine provenances from all over Russia were planted in 1974 at zone of southern taiga (580 N, 970 E), Central Siberia. Eight tree-ring characteristics for 16 provenances from the southern taiga plantation were measured densitometrically. The time span of tree-ring observations covers the period from 1982 to 1996. The age trends of different tree-ring characteristics differ greatly, but their character is similar for different provenances. We excluded age trends by indexing to evaluate interannual tree-ring variability. Correlation analysis calculated of raw series showed that tree-ring width and earlywood width decrease and that latewood percentage increases in relation to increasing latitude of the provenances. Tree-ring density has a tendency to decrease with increase in tree-ring width for all the provenances (-0.46>R>-0.86). Individual variability (from tree to tree) within the provenances shows high values, being 1-4 times higher than chronological variability (standard deviation from indexed curve). Evaluations of individual and chronological variability show that the earlywood characteristics are more variable than the latewood characteristics and the growth characteristics are more variable than the density characteristics. Cluster analysis of the provenances represented by tree-ring characteristics differentiated the provenances into three groups. However, the statistical distances between the groups are minor. The correlation of the indices with the mean monthly temperature and precipitation data shows the similarity in limiting growth factors for most of the provenances. Only extreme northern provenances respond differently to the same climatic condition. The sensitivity coefficient of latewood width, latewood and maximum densities and latewood percentage decreases in relation to the increasing latitude of the provenances. The correlation coefficients of indices between the local provenance and the other provenances are not lower than 0.37-0.94, and the synchronicity coefficients are at minimum 0.50. The normalized Euclidean distances vary from 0.06 to 0.15 between the local provenance and the other provenances within plantations. All statistical parameters show that interannual variability reflects the prevailing influence of the local weather conditions. The variability of weather conditions determines up 85% of the growth variability in the southern taiga of a Central Siberia. Assuming that simultaneously high values of ring width and wood density, and low values of interannual variability are more desired traits of wood, the European provenances and Zaudinsk provenance (forest-steppe) are more suitable for establishment of forest plantation at this region. In the context of global and regional climatic change these results show that the northern provenances are more conservative for utilizing energy resources of the first half of the growing season effectively. We suggest that the movement of the northern border of Scots pine natural habitat will not be rapid especially if other competitive species (e.g. larch) are better adapted to use heat effectively. The authors express gratitude to Prof. E.A. Vaganov, F.H. Schweingruber and L.I. Milyutin for helpful discussions.