Vol 59, No 4 (2023)

Abstract—A palynological study of 82 samples of honey from Middle Asia and Kazakhstan was carried out in order to determine the resources of the key melliferous and polleniferous plants. The obtained results made it possible to establish 8 productive beekeeping zones in the studied territory. The most common pollen combinations are identified for each zone. The selected zones can be combined into two large groups: northern and southern, with a transitional area (zone 3, the Dzungarian Alatau mountain ridge) between them, where honey with mixed palynological characteristics is obtained. In the northern part, in zones 1 and 2 (northern and eastern Kazakhstan) Origanum vulgare L., Rubus idaeus L., Salix L. are important wild native melliferous plants, Helianthus annuus L., Sinapis alba L. are agricultural melliferous plants, and Filipendula ulmaria (L.) Maxim. is important polleniferous plant. Further south, in zones 4–8 (south and southeast Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), the principal wild native melliferous plants are Salvia L., Thymus L., Alhagi Tourn. ex Adans., Halimodendron halodendron (Pall.) C.K. Schneid., Tamarix L., Psoralea drupacea Bunge, agricultural melliferous plants – Gossypium hirsutum L. and Onobrychis Mill., weeds – Echium vulgare L., Onopordum acanthium L., Sophora L., and polleniferous plants – Hypericum L., Artemisia L., Plantago L. and Chenopodiaceae.

Abstract—For twelve years, 14 species of the genus Sorbus L. are growing of in the Botanical Garden of Petrozavodsk State University (South Karelia). They are characterized by a variety of ornamental features – the leaf shape and dissection, flowers, autumn coloring of leaves and fruits. The studied species have different geographical origin: Sorbus americana Marshall and S. decora (Sarg.) C.K. Schneid. are native to North America, S. aria (L.) Grantz, S. mougeotii Soy.-Will. et Godr., S. sudetica (Tausch) Dluff, Nees et Schauer, S. intermedia (Ehrh.) Pers., S. bristoliensis Wilmott, S. × thuringiaca (Ilse ex Nyman) Schonach. – to Europe, S. eburnea McAll., S. koehneana C.K. Schneid., S. amurensis Koehne., S. cashmiriana Hedl., S. sambucifolia (Cham. et Schltdl.) M. Roem – to East Asia, and S. caucasica Zinserl. – to Central Asia. The studied plants have been grown from seeds received in 2010–2015 from the botanical gardens of Russia and abroad. 14 species flowered and fruited for the first time in 2021–2022. Annual shoots of all studied species fully mature by the end of the season. Botanical gardens located at different latitudes provide with data on the cultivated Sorbus species, so it is possible to compare the duration of ontogenetic stages and the dates of the main phenological phases, and to draw preliminary conclusions on the influence of climatic factors on the ontogenetic and seasonal development of plants. The dates of the beginning of the spring vegetation from the middle taiga to Ufa and Stavropol vary by three weeks, and the end of shoot growth – by two months. Along latitudinal gradient from Stavropol to Apatity, the first flowering date varies from the middle of May to the end of July. In the northern regions, the growing season of most of the studied species is shorter than in the southern. A species-specific sequence of seasonal development was revealed: early onset of phenophases in S. sambucifolia, and the latest in S. caucasica, S. bristoliensis, S. eburnea, S. × thuringiaca. According to the first results of a comprehensive assessment of adaptation and viability, all studied Sorbus species are promising as urban greening plants and suitable for further cultivation in southern Karelia.

Abstract—Saposhnikovia divaricata (Turcz. ex Ledeb.) Schischk. (Apiaceae) is a useful medicinal plant, which contain a number of substances with a wide range of pharmacological activity; chromones, in particular, are found in the roots. For this reason, plants are heavily harvested from the wild, resulting in the population low density. S. divaricata is a taproot perennial monocarpic that reproduces by seeds only. The introduction of the species, the study of seed productivity and seed reproduction is a vital task for the development of industrial plant cultivation and the restoration of natural populations. The purpose of this work is to study seed production and biology of seed propagation. The generative shoot of S. divaricata is a synflorescence (a panicle of double umbels) with a floral unit being a double umbel. Plants from natural habitat and cultivated ones were studied. A comparative analysis of the seed production of double umbels, depending on their position on the rachis was carried out. The proportion of seed set (seed number/ovule number) and fruit set (fruit number/flower number) in a simple umbel, the potential and real seed productivity of a simple umbel, double umbel, and an individual plant were determined. Fruit of S. divaricata is a cremocarp consisting of two single-seeded mericarps. The seeds have a thin spermoderm, so they were stored and germinated with the pericarp. Seeds (mericarps) for germination were collected from natural populations and cultivated plants considering their position on the rachis, and stored for eight months under laboratory conditions (+23–25 °C). The results of the experiment included data on the duration of the period from the beginning of the experiment to the seed germination, the duration of the germination period (from the beginning of germination), laboratory germination of seeds (%), germination energy (%), rate of germination energy (%). All cultivated plants were monocarpic. The diameter of the synflorescence reaches 124 cm; on average, about 70 double umbels with fruits are formed on it. It was found that in introduced plants, seeds from the branches of the third order make up more than 50% of the real seed production, and from the second and fourth order branches – 21 and 26%, respectively. In natural populations, seeds from the fourth order branches account for 45% of the real seed production, of the third – 30%, of the 2nd – 15%. In the introduced plants, the real seed production of the second generation was about 6000 seeds per individual, which is higher than that of plants in natural populations, where the seed set is 65%. The seeds exhibit non-deep dormancy, and the period before germination does not exceed 10 days. Seed germination is dynamic; more than 50% of the germinated seeds have sprouted within seven days. Laboratory germination was higher in the seeds from the natural population, than from the introduced plants. The highest laboratory germination in introduced plants was found in seeds from double umbels of the second or third order branches – 72–73%, and from the natural populations – in seeds from the shoots of the third or fourth order branches – more than 90%.