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Abstract

Matteuccia struthiopteris (L.) Tod.-Ostrich fern (Onocleaceae) is the circumboreal species widely distributed in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. In the paper, we presented the results of the observations on the developing population of M. struthiopteris on the man-made lawn situated in the University Grove of Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russian Federation). In the original making of the lawn, the ground was replaced by new rich soil, which was taken in early summer of 2007 from a native site situated 6.65 km towards southwest from Tomsk University. The formation of the plant community on the new lawn occurred mostly naturally, and sporophytes of this fern appeared naturally. The first sporophytes on the new lawn were detected in 2009, occurring initially in the significant numbers, recorded here. During the time of observation (2009-2018) the number of sporophytes decreased from an original 263 to 96, i.e. 63.5% of sporophytes died. The initial population in 2009 included only juvenile sporophytes. No spore-bearing sporophytes appear during the period of observation. For detection of the source of spores, from which the population on the lawn was formed, we selected three populations having fertile sporophytes, and conducted a molecular-genetic analysis. Two of the analyzed source populations were found to be situated at 160-365 m distance from the developing population and one population occurs near the place where the soil for new lawn making was taken. We used the ISSR method for analyzing the genetic diversity of populations and processed the results by software STRUCTURE Version 2.3.4. The result show, that new population, and population from the soil taking point belong to the same group. The coefficient of Nei's genetic identity between these populations is high (I = 0.931). This confirms the origin of the new population from spores contained in the soil used for the lawn construction.