Variability of Hungarian oak (Quercus frainetto Ten.) from the territory of Lipovica according to morphological traits of seedlings

Abstract

Natural populations of Hungarian oak in Serbia are found near the northwestern boundary of the range of distribution of this significant forest species. The survival of forest border provenances is endangered due to climate change, small population size, low species competitiveness, etc. Therefore, ancillary measures of population regeneration support are recommended along with broadening of their genetic diversity. Although the knowledge of the levels and structure of genetic diversity of populations is a prerequisite for successful conservation and use, research of this topic regarding Hungarian oak is rare. The analyses of morphological traits of one-year-old seedlings of 40 half-sib families are carried out in order to gain insight into the variability of Hungarian oak population in Lipovica. The intrapopulation variability was determined based on two measured morphological parameters and one derived ratio. The obtained results show there is a significant variability of morphological traits of seedlings on the level of half-sib families and they indicate a high phenotypic variability of the researched traits. The results of the analysis of variance show statistically significant differences between the researched halfsib families for all observed traits. The researched gene pool of Hungarian oak is characterized by a satisfactory degree of genetic variability and represents a good starting point for the process of further breeding. In order to confirm the results of this research, i.e., to determine more precisely genetic structure of the population, it is necessary to perform analyses of various phenotypic traits in specially designed field plantations as well as the analysis of adequate DNA markers.