Article

Height growth of one-year old beech (Fagus moesiaca Cz.) seedlings was studied in different environmental conditions: in a closed stand and in a felled site. In a closed stand, the seedlings form a phenotype of a sciomorphic structural form, whereas the seedlings in the felled site show significant divergences compared to the unique and complex biological properties of the seedlings formed in the conditions of the closed canopy. A greater significance of differences between the identical biological properties depends on the sequence of their formation, and the most expressive differences occur in the development of the “above-epicotyl-axis”. The significantly different length of the “above-epicotyl-axis” in the seedlings formed in different environmental conditions also conditions a significantly different number of the leaves and axillary buds. In this way, in the same seedling growth stage, the potential of the coppicing base of the dormant buds in the seedlings of sciomorphic structural form (two opposite buds in cotyledon axil, two opposite buds in primary leaf axils) is significantly different from the potential of the coppicing base from the dormant buds in the seedlings with a higher growth intensity of the “above-epicotyl-axis”.