Morphological and anatomical variability of isozymatically identified clones of Pinus mugo Turra

This study examined the anatomical and morphological variability of 10 needle traits in isozymatically identified clones of three peatbog populations of Pinus mugo, focusing on variation within and between clones, and the relation between isozyme variation and morpho-anatomical characters of needles. In each peatbog there were clones exhibiting high and low plasticity of the anatomical and morphological traits studied. In general, three types of variation within clones were distinguished: (1) clones with ramets very similar to each other, (2) clones with extensive intra-clone variability, and (3) clones with intermediate variability. The differences in phenotypic variability within clones may be explained by differences in the reaction norm of ramets in particular clones and by somatic mutations. In respect to anatomical, morphological and isozymatic traits, clones from the same peatbog showed more similarity to each other than to clones from other peatbogs.