Preservation of biodiversity of the genus Hedera L. in the Nikita botanical garden

• Published in: IOP conference series. Earth and environmental science 2021-03, Vol.677 (5), p.52090
• Main Authors: Khailenko, E V, Plugatar, S A, Zykova, V K
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Botanical gardens; Collection; Color; Cultivars; Hedera; Leaves; Species
• ISSN: 1755-1307; 1755-1315
• DOI: 10.1088/1755-1315/677/5/052090

Representatives of the genus Hedera L. have been cultivated in Nikitsky Botanical Gardens over two centuries. The inventory of the collection has revealed thirty five species, cultivars, and forms, including four relics of cultivation – H. helix ‘Angularis’, ‘Rugosa’, ‘Cavendishii’, and H. hibernica ‘Scutifolia’. The presence of three species, thirty-two cultivars and forms belonging to four species, of which two species and four varieties have reached the generative stage and twenty-six cultivars are at the juvenile stage, has been established. There are seven of nine garden groups in the collection. Within morpho-decorative characteristics, two groups have been identified in terms of the color of the leaf blade: monochromatic green (twenty-four varieties and forms); and variegated (eight varieties and forms, of which there are seven white-spotted and one yellow-spotted varieties). In terms of the color type (multicolored), marginal, median, and suffuse colors have been identified. In terms of the shape of the leaf blades, the following groups have been identified among the species and cultivars: finger-cut, rounded-reniform, ovate-elongated, and irregularly asymmetric. In terms of the growth type at the juvenile stage, most species of the genus proved to be plagiotropic; yet cultivars with orthotropic growth type have also been found (in our collection, this is H. helix ‘Conglomerata’). Promising directions for increasing biodiversity of the genus include their further introduction by way of the generic complex, as well as enlarging the collection, primarily with variegated varieties of different color types and varieties from two garden groups that have not yet been present in the collection.