Rhamnus fallax Boiss. is a distinctive calciphyte and pioneer species. It ranges from southeastern outskirts of Alps throughout the Balkan Peninsula to Greece and Bulgaria. The goals of this study were identification of the sex ratio of the sampled populations, existence of morphologic variability, influence of environmental factors on variability and occurrence of eventual sexual dimorphism in this species. We selected 6 populations in the region of Kamnik-Savinja Alps. To determine the sex ratio of the populations we analyzed 547 shrubs. Out of those we selected 180 specimens from which we gathered 1620 leaves for detailed morphometric analysis. We have found that the sex ratio was male biased in all populations. On average there were approximately twice as many males (49,31 %) as females (27,33 %), however the sex determination was not possible on the remaining share of the shrubs (23,36 %). We preformed a hierarchical test with intention to show the influence of individual factors (altitudinal belt, population, sex, specimen) on the variability of the measured characteristics. The greatest influence on the overall variability of leaves came from the intra-specimen level and the greatest influence on the overall variability of shrubs came from the specimen level. The sex status of shrubs had the weakest influence on variability of leaves and shrubs. We preformed principal component analysis on the average values for all characteristics on male and female plants. In most populations male shrubs had somewhat larger leaves than females. Average leaf size was relatively similar among analyzed populations, with the exception of population III, which was located in dryer wind exposed habitat with rocky soil.
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