BIODIVERSITY OF FRUIT-BEARING FOREST SPECIES IN THE PROTECTED LANDSCAPE "KONJUH"

UDK: 634.2:574.4]:502(497.6 “Konjuh“) The area of the protected landscape "Konjuh" is distinguished by quality forest ecosystems, featuring diverse fruit-bearing forest species, which contributes to the conservation of biodiversity of the protected landscape "Konjuh". The aim of the paper is to assess the state of biodiversity of fruit-bearing species in the forest ecosystems of the study area, with the emphasis on determining the genus richness as a basis for conservation (in/ex situ), breeding and economic use. During the vegetation season in 2015 and 2016, several relevés (phytosociological plot) were made in the Protected Landscape "Konjuh". The results of the research indicate the high level of variability for most of the species according to characteristics of biology, pomology, and ecology. The fruit trees, like the noble hardwood, are wild cherry, (Prunus avium L.), wild pear (Pyrus communis L.), wild apples (Malus sylvestris Mill.), Breccia (Torminalis clusii M. Roem.), Sorbus aria L. et all, Wild cherry, Vrapcarka (Prunus avium L.) is the most famous forest fruit grower, occurs as a single tree or in smaller groups (Noćajević, 2009). The benefits of fruit-bearing forest species are emphasized in the bloom and the fruiting time, when "decorated" forest provide a rich bee pasture and feeding nutriment for forest fauna (Orešković et al. 2006). Fruit-bearing Forest species are significant as the genera of the varieties and as a basis for the grafting for high-grade varieties. Also, they are important for humans from the aspect of ecology, nutrition, dietotherapy, pharmacology and bioenergy balance.