INSTYTUT DENDROLOGII

Morphological analyses of 24 samples of Juniperus phoenicea, including 6971 cones and 6974 fragments of shoots of the last ramification of 713 specimens were conducted, as well as genetic analyses using three ISSR markers of 33 samples of J. phoenicea, including the 1009 specimens were carried out. It was found that the center of the formation of Juniperus phoenicea was probably in south-western part of the Iberian Peninsula as suggested by Lebreton and Rivera (1989). Then the species spread by two migration routes: by Spain - to Andorra and France and perhaps to the north-western Italy and along the coasts of Europe and Africa up to the Canary Islands (the population of mountainous areas of northern Africa may have occurred during the Pleistocene climate change). Further colonization of J. phoenicea, along the southern coast of Greece, Corsica and Sardinia, probably took place during the Messinian salinity crisis before nearly six million years ago. The species could migrate to the east also along the coast of Africa - to Cyrenaica (Libya), and even to the western coast of Asia, but this requires confirmation in further studies.

In the present state of knowledge, the genetic and morphological diversity type found, and indicates that the Pleistocene glaciations have not had a decisive impact on the processes of evolution of Juniperus phoenicea. In this situation, the hypothesis that the species survived the glacial period, not only in the west but also in the eastern Mediterranean had not been fully confirmed, nor denied.

Studies have confirmed the validity of distinguishing two subspecies of the juniper studied: J. phoenicea subsp. phoenicea and J. phoenicea subsp. turbinata, to some extent also helped to show the distinctness of the populations from the Canary Islands.