Taxonomical, phenological and population genetic research in a Hungarian Sessile oak-Turkey oak forest stand
Abstract
Oak species (Quercus) are deciduous elements of natural forests in Hungary. Because of their important silvicultural role there is a need for detailed information on their ecology. Due to this purpose first of all their taxons have to be classified which is difficult because most of Quercus species occurring in Hungary does not accomplish the criteria of a biological species. Our present work was performed within the 1 ha sampling area of Síkfőkút LTER research site. All oak trees occurring in the area were taxonomically classified by means of multi-factoral leaf morphological method. Our results revealed that specification of trees only into Turkey oak (Q. cerris) and Sessile oak (Q. petraea) taxa than formerly happend is not sufficient because introgression of Downy oak (Q. pubescens) proved to be also strong. Moreover considerable diversity of forms was found within the Sessile oak complex. Parallel to measuring leaf morphological parameters phenologic observations and isoenzyme analyses were also performed. All elements of loci proved to be polymorph but 5 had strong heterozygote shortage. Variations within certain loci were in close connection with different groups separated on the basis of the bud-break times and taxonomic character of trees.
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