GROWTH ANALYSIS AND REGENERATION OF BEARBERRY (ARCTOSTAPHYLLOS UVA-URSI) THREATENED BY COLLECTION AS A HIGH?VALUE MEDICINAL PLANT

Harvested quantities of bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) exported have been gradually reduced due to improper harvesting techniques affecting growth and reproduction. We conducted research to analyse the growth of bearberry in Korabi mountain covers up to 200 hectares. Sampling took place in seven sites. We measured several growth parameters and their variation between sites. We found that, besides variations between sites or populations, the growth was higher than that found by other authors in different countries as for the internodes length, the number of leaves per branch, the fruit size and the weight of leaves/plant. Specifically, the internodes length ranges from 0.53 cm to 1.05 cm; the branch length varies from 10.59 cm to 4.14 cm; the number of branches/plant varies from 8.3 to 20; the number of leaves/ branch varies from 17.2 to 22.