SPATIAL AND GENETIC STRUCTURE OF TWO SANDHILLS OAKS: QUERCUS LAEVIS AND

Quercus laevis Walt. (turkey oak) and Q. margaretta Ashe (scrubby post oak) are important scrub oaks in the sandhills forest communities of the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. We used allozyme loci and Ripley's L-statistics to examine clonal structure and spatial dispersion in these species. Q. laevis greater than 1.5 m in height were randomly dispersed on a scale of 0-40 m; smaller individuals (< 1.5 m) were slightly clustered on a scale of 0-12 m. Larger individuals separated by s 1 m had 15% probability of being ramets of the same clone. Q. margaretta showed strong clustering on a scale of 0-20 m. Stems separated by < 1 m had a 71% probability of being ramets of the same clone. Clonal offspring were strongly clustered about the presumed clonal parent: 50% fell within 0.50 m of this individual. Simulation modeling and direct comparison of adult and juvenile genotypes indicated that acorns are dispersed on a scale of tens of meters for both species, suggesting animal vectors such as squirrels or blue jays. Many woody plant species have the capacity to repro