INSTYTUT DENDROLOGII

Karolina Sobierajska, Krystyna Boratyńska, Katarzyna Marcysiak

Variation of cone characters in Pinus mugo (Pinaceae) populations in the Giant Mountains (Karkonosze, Sudetes)

Dendrobiology 2010, vol. 63: 33-41

Full text (pdf)

Abstract: The subalpine communities of Pinus mugo were destructed and replaced by pasture lands on plateau parts and moderately inclined slopes of the mountains during between the 15^th andthe 18^th centuries. The species were able to survive that pressure probably on the abrupt slopes of the glacial cirques. The pasturing stoppedin the 19^th century, and the mountain pine started to reforest its previous habitats since that time. It was also planted in several places and some of contemporary populations can origin from the seeds of the Giant Mountains. In the latter case the populations on the plateau shall reveal differences in the cone characters from autochtonous ones from the glacial cirques. This study was structured on this hypothesis. The characteristics of seven Pinus mugo populations in the Giant Mts. were comparedon the basis of 15 morphological characters of cones. Each population was represented by at least 30 individuals, and for every individual 10 cones were examined. Four of the sampled populations, treated as local, occurred on the steep slopes of the glacial cirques and the other three on the mountain plateaus, usedas pastures in the 17^th to 18^th centuries, potentially originatedfrom another region. Results show rather small differences among the compared populations, independently of origin. The separation of the plateau from the steep slope ones is rather inconspicuous, if any. This suggests the local origin of plateau populations, even when planted.

Additional key words: dwarf mountain pine, population, cone, morphology, biometry, discriminant, cluster, analysis of variance.