%0 Research note
%T Differences in leaf morphology between Quercus petraea and Q. robur adult and young individuals
%A Boratynski, Adam
%A Marcysiak, Katarzyna
%A Lewandowska, Amelia
%A Jasinska, Anna
%A Iszkulo, Grzegorz
%A Burczyk, Jaroslaw
%D 2008
%J Silva Fennica
%V 42
%N 1
%R doi:10.14214/sf.268
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/268
%X 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 north-eastern 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.