Climatic changes are shifting the potential tree distribution limits of many tree species northwards. One of such species is Fagus sylvatica, currently represented in Latvia only by a few stands. In order to increase knowledge on its potential use in the forest management, the aim of our study was to characterize the growth of beech in a young stand in the central part of Latvia. The stand of beech and spruce, mixed in rows with an initial spacing of 2.5 x 2.5 m in Oxalidosa forest type was assessed. Survival of European beech in clear cutting was similar to that observed for the native Norway spruce (73% and 79%, respectively), but both height and diameter were notably and significantly superior for wildlings at the mean age of 15 ± 2 years, reaching on average 7.4 ± 0.30 m and 8.9 ± 0.69 cm, respectively. Increasing ring width with increasing tree age for both tree species was observed until the last four years, when large and increasing superiority of beech over spruce, coinciding with reduction of ring width of spruce, was noted. It was most likely caused by intensified competition due to very wide crowns formed by young beech trees in the plantation with wide spacing: average crown radius reached 2.4 ± 0.16 m, for few trees exceeding even 4 m.

Assortment improvement is a natural process of updating varieties and improving the quality of variety assortment. The article presents the results of studying the introduced grape (Vitis vinifera) varieties in the conditions of the southeast of Kazakhstan, in particular in the bottom-mountain area of Almaty region. The beginning and the end of the main phenological phases passing for the vegetative period in a grape plant directly depended on climatic and weather conditions of this district. It is established that varieties ‘Kuibyshevsk early-maturing’, ‘Iyulsky’ and ‘Priusadebny’ have a good degree of eyes wintering buds and are able to give a yield of high quality in this area in comparison with recognized variety ‘Almaty early-maturing’.

The article is devoted to the analysis of historical, cultural, and architectural importance of Miklouho-Maclay park, a monument of landscape art. It examines the archive data about the family of the famous traveler, ethnographer, anthropologist Mykola Mykolayovych Miklouho-Maclay who lived in Malyn (Zhitomir district Ukraine) at the end of XIX and the beginning of XX century, his contribution to the development of landscape art. It is shown that the park contains 57 species of arboreal-shrub plants including 34 species of trees, 22 shrubs, and one shrubbу liana. 23 of them (40%) are introduced species. The author offers the direction of parkland reconstruction and points out recommendations on territory zoning.