Oplutnik is not a widely known species in Slovenia, mostly due to its rarity. There are only three registered specimens, two in the Karst region and one in Haloze. Oplutnik is believed to be a hybrid between Quercus cerris L. and Quercus suber L. The objective of this paper was to study and examine morphological and genetic variability of oplutnik with its putative parental species. Since Quercus suber L. does not grow on Slovenian territory, it was located it in nearby Croatia and treated it as a potential parental species to our Karstic Quercus crenata Lam. To enlarge the sample and make it relevant for the analysis, the comparation between Slovenia-grown trees and the trees from central Italy (the province of Viterbo) was done. Cristofolini method was applied for morphological analyses and restriction method for genetic analyses. The results showed high diversity between the species and also among individual specimens within a species. Genetic variability among haplotypes within the same population is higher than among different populations. Morphometric analysis showed that LL, LW and LOB explain most of the variation. Its existance is threatened in Slovenia, so there was done a list on the possibility to preserve and reproduct Quercus crenata Lam. in Slovenian forests.
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