Hemerocallis × hybrida hort. gene pool in Nikita Botanical Gardens

Abstract

Hemerocallis × hybrida hort. is a perspective plant product in landscaping in the South of Russia, due to its ecological plasticity and a wide range of biological and morphological characteristics. In terms of the Hemerocallis × hybrida hort. collection of Nikita Botanical Gardens (NBG) 86 cultivars of foreign breeding and four own hybrid forms were investigated. All studied cultivars of Hemerocallis × hybrida hort. are identified as perennial herbaceous polycarpic with assimilative non-succulent shoots. The comprehensive investigation of biomorphological peculiarities of investigated cultivars revealed that the NBG collection of Hemerocallis × hybrida hort. covers an absolute modern range of Hemerocallis × hybrida hort. The cultivars were classified into groups according to type of leaf development (3 groups), height of vegetative (3 groups) and generative shoots (4 groups), height of generative shoots concerning the position of leaves (3 groups), size (5 groups), shape (5 groups) and flower color (7 groups), blooming term (4 groups) and remontant ability (2 groups). It became possible to conduct a comparative cultivar evaluation and determine the prospect of cultivars for landscaping in the resort belt of the Crimea. This promising assortment includes the best introduced cultivars and all four hybrid forms of NBG breeding. Perspective cultivars and hybrid forms possess valuable ornamental characters and economically biological properties. The use of this assortment in landscaping leads to either highly ornamental compositions allowing for morphological peculiarities of investigated cultivars, or continuously blooming compositions from the second half of May till the beginning of November, which is of great interest for landscape gardening in the South of Russia.