Quality of pedunculate oak Provenances in Bosnian–Herzegovinian provenance test based on branching angle and stem form

Pedunculate oak (quercus robur l) populations in bosnia and herzegovina are significant for species preserva- tion in europe because of their specific genetic structure. for conservation purposes, we established a prove- nance test in 2009 in žepče, with 28 provenances. in 2019, we evaluated branching angles and stem form of plants through a provenance test to assess their quality. plants with branching angle <22.5° was found with 2% of the total number of plants, branching angle 22.5°–45° in 19% of plants, branching angle 45°–67.5° in 32% of plants, and branching angle 67.5°–90° in 47% of plants. the highest percentage of the most favorable branching angle had a provenance from ključ, miljevina foča, and bugojno. category 10 of stem form (ideal tree, without defect) was found in 14% of the plants, category 9 (a small defect) in 16%, category 8 (two slight defects) in 3%, category 7 (two medium defects or many small defects) in 4%, category 6 (big defects that can be recovered or more medium defects) in 16%, and category 5 (many defects) in 7% of the total number of plants. in category 4, the researchers recorded all the plants without silvicultural value, and it included 40% of the plants. the highest percentage of category 10 plants had a drvar provenance (42%), whereas the lowest had a bugojno provenance (2%). these results are important in assessing the quality of provenances and need to be followed by research of other morphological traits and genetic variability.