The Department of Forest Genetics, Dendrology and Botany of the Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb, holds the largest collection of woody plants in Croatia. This is a unique collection featuring plant material, i.e. herbarium, a collection of cones, fruits and seeds, as well as a collection of shoots of deciduous species in the winter season, of autochthonous and allochthonous woody plants.
The dendrological collection of the Department of Forest Genetics, Dendrology and Botany of the Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb, was established in 1960. It currently contains about 7000 herbarium specimens, more than 1000 samples of cones, fruits and seeds, and over 500 shoots of deciduous species in the winter season, with newly collected botanical material added to the collection every year. Since 2016, the herbarium of the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Zagreb has been registered in the Index Herbariorum, under the international acronym DEND.
The herbarium of the Faculty of Forestry is an important source of information on woody plants for the local and international botanical community, and is primarily used by scientists dealing with dendrology. Dendrology is a science which examines the morphological characteristics of trees, shrubs and subshrubs, their affiliation, biological features, environmental requirements, variability, distribution and economic importance. The herbarium collection offers scientists insights into the diversity of plant taxa, biodiversity of a particular area, distribution of woody plants, population trends in time and space, and in addition to the scientific role, also plays an important role in the teaching of dendrology, horticultural dendrology, phytocoenology, botany studies and related subjects.
The primary activities of the herbarium collection workers are: systematization and digitalization of herbarium specimens, supplementation of the collection by collecting specimens, mounting herbarium specimens.
Research field: forest dendrology, horticulture dendrology, population genetics, molecular ecology, morphological and chemical diversity of populations, conservation biology
Plant groups: noble hardwoods (Castanea sativa, Sorbus domestica, Sorbus torminalis, Sorbus aucuparia, Pyrus pyraster, Pyrus spinosa, Malus sylvestris), alders (Alnus glutinosa, Alnus incana, Alnus alnobetula), willows (Salix alba, Salix fragilis, Salix elaeagnos, Salix purpurea, Salix triandra)
e-mail: ipoljak@sumfak.hr
tel.: +385 1 235 2547
Research field: variability and conservation of noble hardwoods, invasive woody plants, dendroflora (indigenous and ornamental allochthonous), morphological and chemical diversity of population, conservation biology
Plant groups: mistletoes (Loranthus europaeus, Viscum album, Arceuthobium oxycedri), pine hybrids (Pinus nigra, P. sylvestris, P. densiflora, P. thunbergiana), noble hardwoods (Castanea sativa, Sorbus domestica, Sorbus torminalis, Pyrus pyraster, Pyrus spinosa, Malus sylvestris)
e-mail: midzojtic@sumfak.hr
tel.: +385 1 235 2547
Research field: dendroflora, population genetics, morphology, biodiversity
Plant groups: noble hardwoods (Castanea sativa, Pyrus pyraster, Sorbus aucuparia, Pyrus spinosa), willows (Salix alba, Salix fragilis, Salix elaeagnos, Salix purpurea, Salix triandra)
e-mail: avidakovi@sumfak.hr
tel.: +385 1 235 2538
Department of Forest Genetics, Dendrology and Botany
Svetošimunska cesta 23
10000 Zagreb, Hrvatska
http://dendherbarij.sumfak.unizg.hr/herbariumdend.html
The DEND Herbarium can be visited by appointment on working days, from Monday to Friday, between 8AM and 4PM.
Requests for a visit or loan of the DEND herbarium specimens should be addressed to the responsible person:
Igor Poljak
e-mail: ipoljak@sumfak.hr
tel.: +385 1 235 2547
In November 2020, 28 seedlings of woody plants were planted in the School Arboretum of the Forestry and Woodworking School in Karlovac. The seedlings were donated by the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Zagreb. The majority of them are autochthonous forest fruit trees: wild apple, wild pear, rowan, service tree, common and midland hawthorn. In terms of ornamental species, three dove-trees were planted as well as a holly species native to Mongolia and south-west China.
In order to establish the current status of the woody plants on the territory of the Kralj Petar Krešimir IV Park in Zagreb, a dendrological analysis was performed and the current status of woody plants was compared to the status from 1962 and 1995. The plants were identified in the period from the summer of 2018 to the summer of 2019. There were a total of 122 taxa recorded in the garden, distributed within 36 families: 83 species (six gymnosperms and 77 angiosperms), two subspecies (both angiosperms), 30 cultivars (one gymnosperm and 29 angiosperms), six hybrids (all angiosperms) and one variety (angiosperm). Despite the fact that in comparison with different arboretums and botanical gardens the park does not contain more significant woody taxa, nevertheless the trees of ginkgo, plane, common persimmon and Amur cork tree stand out, present in the park since its establishment and constituting an important segment of its visual identity.
With the planting of about 50 seedlings of woody plants collected and donated by the Dendrology Section of the Croatian Botanical Society, in the spring and fall of 2019 the school arboretum of the Forestry and Woodworking School in Karlovac was enriched with 27 new species, varieties and cultivars: Cornus kousa, Cornus sericea 'Flaviramea', Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii, Davidia involucrata, Erica carnea, Ilex aquifolium 'Ferox', Ilex verticillata, Ilex pernyi, Osmanthus heterophyllus, Viburnum davidii, Weigela florida 'Variegata', Juniperus communis 'Repanda', Juniperus communis 'Green Carpet', Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star', Juniperus squamata 'Blue Carpet', Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata Aureomarginata' etc.
The Trsteno Arboretum is our only arboretum managed by a scientific institution – the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and fulfills the tasks set before a historical arboretum in a modern world. In order to determine the present abundance of woody taxa at the Trsteno Arboretum, the plants were documented in the period from spring 2017 to spring 2018. A dendrological analysis was conducted and the present abundance of woody plants was compared to the literature data from the middle and late 20th century, as well as from the beginning of the 21st century. Currently, the Trsteno Arboretum contains 317 woody taxa, of which 233 are species, 8 subspecies, 2 varieties, 10 hybrids and 64 cultivars.
The book offers a detailed overview of the morphology of reproductive organs and data on the reproductive biology of woody plants of importance for European dendrology. The book describes reproductive organs of 2020 taxa and shows them on photos in detail. The numerous photos significantly contribute to the value of the book and facilitate identification of a particular taxon based on its cones, flowers, fruits and seeds. https://www.elsevier.com/books/dendrology-cones-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/idzojtic/978-0-12-819644-1