Concentrations of manganese and iron in some woody and herbs plants

Heavy metals are the substances that indicate environmental pollution. The plants polluted with heavy metals may endanger natural environment and cause health problems in humans. In our multidisciplinary research of the concentrations of pollutants in forest ecosystems and natural environment in Belgrade, we examined the contents of heavy metals essential for plants but harmful in greater concentrations on a long-term basis. The fact that heavy metals manganese and iron are accumulated in plants to the greatest extent focused our work on determination of the level of concentrations of Mn and Fe in the vegetative parts of 8 plant types on three locations on the Avala Mountain and one location in the centre of the city of Belgrade. The analyses of heavy metals contents in plants were performed by the method of flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The examination of the existence of important differences between the average values was performed by implementation of Duncan’s test for the level of significance of 95%. The current contents of heavy metals in plants in the area of the protected natural resource Avala do not represent danger that would presently cause notable damage to forests but show the tendency of the increase of concentrations. Therefore, this issue should be constantly monitored

Variability of Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea’ Clones Produced by Grafting

European beech is renowned due to its ornamental cultivars, such as purple beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea’), but its production in Serbia is represented in small number of nurseries. The aim of this paper was to analyze the success of hetero-vegetative propagation of purple beech and variability of different characteristics, in order to improve the production of nursery stocks for widespread use. The splice and wedge grafting were applied, using scions collected from five Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea’ adult trees, and two different rootstocks: five-year-old seedlings directly produced in nursery beds and one-year-old containerized seedlings. Analysis of grafting success rates, survival percentage, as well as quantitative (height and root collar diameter) and qualitative (leaf color) characteristics of produced grafts in four successive years, were investigated. Grafting performed using the containerized rootstocks showed the high success rate (50-80%), but the survival percentage at the end of fourth year was lower (30-47%). The survival percentage of grafts produced directly on rootstocks in nursery beds was 22-78% at the end of first year, and constantly kept those values in the next three years. The highest mean values of quantitative characteristics were found in clone number 5 and 1, while the smallest were recorded in clone 3. Leaf color was intensive reddish-purple in most grafts, while in some grafts about 20% reddish-green leaves was recorded. Based on the obtained results, it can be stated that purple beech trees in Belgrade area could be used as mother plants and starting material for the improvement of its production

In Vitro Callus Induction from Adult Tissues of Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees and Two Cherry Rootstocks

Several in vitro biotechnological techniques have been developed, all of which require a reliable protocol to produce a responsive callus mass. One of these techniques is callus fusion in vitro, which is reliable for the early detection of (in)-compatibility of scions and rootstocks. In this paper, the possibility to obtain friable callus tissues was explored by callus induction of adult tissues of Japanese flowering cherry trees from the group Sato zakura (Prunus serrulata ‘Amanogawa’, ‘Kanzan’ and ‘Kiku-shidare-zakura’) and two domestic cherry rootstocks – Prunus avium and Prunus ‘Colt’. The explants used in the research were: leaf petiole, leaf base with a part of a petiole, part of lamina with a midvein and a stem with an axillary bud. Among three plant growth media (MS, SH and WP) that were used in this study, the MS proved to be the most favourable for the majority of taxa during the callus induction process. For the sweet cherry tree and the cultivars ‘Kanzan’ and ‘Colt’, the SH plant growth medium was also acceptable. The best results in callogenesis were obtained for the majority of taxons with auxin at the concentration 2 mgL-1 NAA and cytokinin BAP 0.5 mgL-1. It is also possible to use 2.4-D at the same concentration as a substitute for the genotypes Prunus avium, Prunus ‘Colt’ and Prunus serrulata ‘Kanzan’, whereas IBA proved to be an inappropriate auxin for callus induction. The protocol described herein is proved to be efficient callus induction in a range of taxa of genus Prunus