Determination of the systematic position of species R. juniperus growing in the north-east of the European Russia

To assess the systematic position of juniper Siberian (J. sibirica Burgsd.) in the genus Juniperus, the variability of needle structure at all levels of the organization and a fragment of chloroplast DNA of junipers in the North-East of European Russia were investigated. It is established that in junipers growing in: spruce bilberry-sphagnum, spruce polytric, curved birch forest, herb larch forest, the morphological characteristics of the needles are significantly different and can be assigned to different species. However, sequencing of intron trnL of junipers from flat area, foothills of the Northern Urals and the Polar Urals has shown that these sequences, namely intron (UAA) and part of exon of trnL DNA gene 329 bp long are identical. Thus, the results of structural analysis of needles are not confirmed by the conclusions of molecular genetic analysis. To determine the position of Siberian juniper in taxonomic structure of genus Juniperus, it is advisable to increase the number of sequenced genes.