rosa canina l., dog rose, habitat, plant variability, selection
Abstract
A dog rose (Rosa canina L) is one of the most widespread wild species of the genus Rosa in our country, and fairly represented in the natural, rural and even urban areas. Although in the world a dog roses are studied, cultivated and refined, in Croatia its cultivation almost does not exists. In nature you can see major differences between plants, especially considering the size of the fruit, often in very small habitats. The study was conducted at 8 rose dog bushes at about 1 ha of abandoned experimental field 'Jazbina' in Zagreb. From each plant, 120 fruits were randomly collected at a technological maturity. The average fresh fruit weight ranged from 1.88 to 2.96 g, the average fresh flesh portion from 65.4 to 74.7 % and the average dry flesh matter content (after drying at 105 °C), in relation to the fresh fruit weight, from 22.9 to 28.6 %. The length, width, thickness, and shape of the fruits were significantly different (P≤0.05). Since plants were grown in uniform climatic and edaphic conditions, it can be concluded that a relatively large phenotypic, and probably the genotypic variability of dog rose plants exists in such a small location. With the reasonable assumption that the Croatian territory has a lot of similar dog rose habitats, the results of this study indicate a rich genetic potential of dog rose, which could be used for initial selection of plants with superior characteristics intended to be introduced in cultivation.
