U radu su prikazani rezultati utjecaja krupnoće ploda divlje jabuke na brojna morfološka i fiziološka svojstva sjemena. Plodovi su podijeljeni s obzirom na masu u tri skupine: mali (< 10 g), srednje krupni (10-20 g) i veliki (> 20 g). Izmjerena su značajnija morfološka svojstva plodova. Za morfološku analizu sjemena korišten je softver WinSEEDLE 2011. Za statističku analizu deset morfoloških i fizioloških značajki sjemena korišten je paket SAS 9.2.. U cilju utvrđivanja varijabiliteta podataka te povezanosti pojedinih morfoloških značajki sjemena napravljena je analiza glavnih komponenti – PCA (Statistica 7.0). Utvrđena je statistički značajna razlika između malih, srednje krupnih i velikih plodova u sljedećim varijablama: duljina ploda (mm), širina ploda (mm), broj punih sjemenki u plodu (kom), težina svježeg sjemena (g), težina zračno suhog sjemena (g) i gubitak vlage u sjemenu (%). Navedene varijable povećavaju se s masom ploda. Gubitak vlage u sjemenu u prosjeku je za 8,667 % veći kod velikih plodova u odnosu na male. U slučaju malih plodova (< 10 g), utvrđena je pozitivna i vrlo visoka korelacija između širine ploda i duljine ploda, težine ploda i duljine odnosno širine ploda i težine sjemena u zračno suhom i svježem stanju. Kod srednje krupnih plodova (10-20 g), utvrđena je pozitivna i vrlo visoka korelacija između težine ploda i duljine odnosno širine ploda, širine ploda i težine svježeg odnosno zračno suhog sjemena, broja punih sjemenki u plodu i težine sjemena u svježem odnosno zračno suhom stanju te težine sjemena u zračno suhom i svježem stanju. U slučaju velikih plodova (>20 g), utvrđena je pozitivna i vrlo visoka korelacija između indeksa oblika ploda (DP/ŠP) i duljine ploda, težine ploda i širine ploda, broja punih sjemenki u plodu i težine sjemena u svježem odnosno zračno suhom stanju te između težine sjemena u svježem i zračno suhom stanju. Provedena PCA analiza rezultirala je s dvije funkcije koje su imale veće eigen vrijednosti od 1,00 i koje su objasnile 97,82% ukupne varijabilnosti u morfološkim značajkama sjemena iz istraživanih plodova različite težine. Projicirana površina, zakrivljena širina, volumen elipse, elipsoidna površina i oblik sjemenke pokazala je izuzetno visoke negativne vrijednosti s prvom osi, dok drugoj osi najviše pridonosi zakrivljena duljina (negativno) i oblik sjemenke (pozitivno).The paper presents the results of the impact of fruit size of wild apples on a number of morphological and physiological seed properties. The fruits were divided into three groups with respect to mass: small (< 10 g), medium (10-20 g) and large (> 20.00 g). Significant morphological properties of fruits were measured. WinSEEDLE 2011 software was used for morphological analysis of seeds. SAS 9.2. package was used for statistical analysis of ten morphological and physiological characteristics of seeds. The main components were analyzed using PCA (Statistica 7.0) in order to determine the variability of data and the relationship between some morphological characteristics of the seed. There was a statistically significant difference between small, medium and large fruits in the following variables: fruit length (mm), fruit width (mm), number of filled seeds per fruit (pieces), weight of fresh seeds (g), weight of air-dry seed (g) and loss of moisture in the seed (%). These variables increase with fruit weight. The loss of moisture in the seed was higher by 8.667% on average in large fruits in relation to small ones. In the case of small fruits (< 10 g), a positive and very high correlation was found between fruit width and length, between fruit weight and length, and between fruit width and weight of fresh and air-dry seed. In medium-sized fruit (10-20 g), there was a positive and very high correlation between fruit weight and fruit length and width, between fruit width and weight of fresh and air-dried seeds, between the number of filled seeds per fruit and seed weight in fresh or air-dry state and between weight of seeds in the air dry and fresh state. In the case of large fruits (> 20 g), there was a positive and very high correlation between the fruit shape index (FL/FW) and fruit length, fruit weight and fruit width, number of filled seeds per fruit and seed weight in fresh air or dry state, and between the weight of seeds in fresh and air-dry state. The conducted PCA analysis resulted in two functions that had eigen values larger than 1.00 and that explained 97.82% of the total variability in the morphological features of seeds from the investigated fruits of different weight. The projected area, the curved width, the volume of the ellipsoid, the surface area of the ellipsoid and the seed shape index showed extremely high negative values to the first axis, whereas the curved length (negative) and the seed shape index (positive) contributed the most to the second axis
