The characters of Quercus robur and Q. petraea leaves are of main taxonomic value and the adult trees of both species can be distinguished on them. However, young individuals, mostly seedlings but also saplings, are told to be undistinguishable or only partly distinguishable on the leaf morphology. The aim of the study was to verify this hypothesis on the basis of biometrical analyses of leaf characteristics of adults trees and saplings in two mixed oak woods, one located close to the northeastern limit, the other about 400 km inside of the Q. petraea range in Poland. The analysis of discriminations and minimum spanning tree on the squares of Mahalanobis distances were analysed to find differences between Q. robur, Q. petraea and intermediate adults and saplings. The differences between saplings of Q. robur and Q. petraea were found lower than between adult trees. Nevertheless, the biometrical analysis confirmed determination of saplings in the field.

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ABstrAct. Experimental-Research Unit -Forest Arboretum in Zielonka is located in the Puszcza Zielonka Landscape Park near Poznań and is bordering experimental forests of the Poznań University of Life Scien ces. The aim of the studies was to identify the diversity of flora and vegetation of green areas in 13 landscape units, distinguished on the basis of the natural lie of the land, as well as forms and intensity of human impacts. 536 vascular plants species, including 82 of MolinioArrhenatheretea class and 102 plant communities with 13 of green areas therein were identified. Taxa and syntaxa of the class mentioned above are present in nearly all complexes of plant communities. The largest acreage of meadows and pastures belongs to the complex of green areas, where the presence of 57 species of MolinioArrhenatheretea class and seven associations were revealed. The lowest number of such indicators was found in aquatic and rush vegetation complex of water basins and in ruderal vegetation of build-up areas and roads, whereas their absence in watercourses vegetation complex. Characteristic species share of Molinia and fresh green areas is highly variable in analysed delimitations.

Rhododendron ferrugineum occurs in the mountains of the Central Europe with large disjunction in geographic range between Pyrenees and Alps and between Alps and Sudetes. We expect that these discon­tinuities in the species occurrence should involved their phenotypic differentiation, similar as described on the studies of molecular markers. The aim of the study was verification of phenotypic differences between the species populations from the Pyrenees, Alps and Sudetes. We examined characters of leaves and capsules from 13 populations, each represented by 25–30 individu­als, using ANOVA, discrimination analysis, principal components analysis and agglomeration on the closest Euclidean distances. Every from examined characters of leaves and capsules except of apex angle of a capsule valve and capsule valve shape differentiated between populations at P≤0.001. Despite, range of character variation differen­tiating even at the highest level overlapped between populations. The analysis of discrimination, principal component analysis and agglomeration gave similar results indicating differences between populations from Pyrenees, Alps and Sudetes. However, the differences between individuals did not allow distinguish regions. The morphological characteristics of the leaves and capsules allowed to distinguish among populations of R. ferrugineum from the Pyrenees, Alps and Sudetes, and the pattern of their phenotypic differentiation was similar to that described based on genetic markers. The relict population from the Sudetes is phenotypi­cally more similar to the populations from the Pyrenees and the Western Alps than to the spatially closest populations from the Eastern Alps.