GENETIC-VARIATION IN EUROPEAN LARCH (LARIX-DECIDUA MILL)

Levels of electrophoretically demonstrable diversity of 7 allozyme loci were estimated in 7 populations representing the natural range of Larix decidua (Mill). On average the gene diversity was 0.223 and the number of alleles per locus was 2.28. Only 5.1% of the total genetic diversity resided among populations with a mean genetic distance among populations of 0.029. The populations could be assigned to two geographic groups, a large one containing populations from the eastern Alps as well as from Poland and Czechoslovakia and a rather restricted one with a single population from the Western Alps. The most homogeneous populations are those from eastern Europe (Poland, Sudetan region and Tatra mountains).