Annotation

The article is devoted to the analysis of the distribution and crop capacity of intrazonal fruit and berry plants in the forest phytocenoses of the Western of Ukraine.

The fruit yield of wild fruit and berry trees and bushes is analyzed taking into consideration the dependence of fruiting intensity on the peculiarities of forest vegetation conditions. The fruit yield of each plant species was determined in the most common types of forest phytocenoses - pine, spruce, oak, beech, and beech-hornbeam, in the Carpathian meadows and in berries formed by members of the cranberry family. Six habitats were selected to account for the harvest: old forest, young forest, thickets of bushes, forest edges, meadows, fellings. The harvest is indicated only for those biotops (habitats) where it reaches the size that the fruit can be collected for economic purposes.

A brief description of the fruit yield of each of the investigated species is presented. The average fruit yield was determined on the area of 100 m2, with subsequent conversion to an area of 1 ha. The data on fruit yield for berries were presented as a yield capacity on 1 ha of area, and for trees and shrubs as a crop capacity of the one model tree (bush).

Sources of by-products of forests, both plain and mountain, are very large. These are primarily harvests of fruit and berry trees and shrubs that grow in the lower tiers, especially in the forest undergrowth and in the ground tiers, which can be more fully used for the local population's own needs, as well as raw materials for the food industry.

Thus, the forests of the western regions of Ukraine and the Carpathian meadows are quite rich in wild fruit trees and shrubs and berries. Every year all of them abundantly fruitfy and are important by-products of secondary forest uses. These fruits are rich in vitamins, have good taste and nutritional qualities, and medicinal value.