Biomorphological features of cones formation and seeds of stinking juniper (Juniperus foetidissima Willd.) in the Crimean mountains

Stinking juniper (Foetidissima Willd.) is included in the Red book of the Russian Federation with the protection status as the kind shrinking in numbers. Currently, in the Crimea there is only one known population of the rare species growing in the territo-ry of the Crimean Natural Reserve. Crimean popu-lation of stinking juniper is characterized by low intensity of the process of renewal. Nobody has studied questions of quantity and quality of seed relic up to this day. Basing on that the purpose of the work was to study the characteristics of biomorphological cones and seed population of J. foetidissima. The research was conducted during 2013-2015. The whole territory of the population of the species was investigated by route method. Thir-ty females were selected at random. Cones gen-eration has been collected under trees this year. In cones as well as in seeds height, width and thick-ness were measured. The studies of samples of female generative organs proved that the propor-tion of high-grade seeds with cones having germ and the endosperm was only 10 %. When compar-ing the two types of parameters cones (containing seeds and not containing seeds) it was found out that cones did not contain seeds 1.5-1.7 times less cones with fully developed seeds. In addition, the number of seeds in cones was determined. As a result it was revealed that 66 % cones contained one seed, 31 % contained two seeds and only 3 % embodied 3 seeds, the amount of seeds was not related to the quality of development of the embryo in them. These results suggest that one of the key reasons for the reduction in population of J. foetidissima in the Crimean Mountains is low per-centage of fully formed seeds.