Morphological and biological features of species of the genus Echinacea Moench during introduction to the Southern coast of the Crimea

Abstract

The paper presents the results of an introduction study of four species of the genus Echinacea Moench from the collection of aromatic and medical plants of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden: E. angustifolia DС. , E. pallida (Nutt.) Nutt. , E. tennesseensis (Breadle) Small and E. purpurea (L.) Moench. Morphological and biological features of these species were identified in order to determine the prospects of their cultivation in the conditions of the Southern Coast of the Crimea. A positive interspecific dependence of the number of inflorescences (baskets) on a plant with the length of the growing season (r=0.92) was established. An intraspecific assessment of the morphometry of inflorescences, such as their diameter, the length of the lingual flowers and the height of the flower bed, showed that E. purpurea has a tendency to negatively correlate these indicators with their number on the plant. Among the studied species of the genus Echinacea, according to the complex of thirteen morpho-biological and economically valuable traits, two species differ in adaptive advantage - these are E. purpurea and E. tennesseensis , and the best samples are No. 15309 and No. 6106 with an aboveground mass yield, respectively, 1.20±0.21 kg/plant and 0.92±0.19 kg/plant. E. pallida is characterized by cumulative signs of drought resistance, it is a short growing season equal to 124±4.1 days and a narrow-lanceolate leaf blade shape (index - 9.6), which allows this species to form a significant yield of aboveground mass (0.86±0.17 kg/plant) in the arid conditions of the subtropical climate of the Southern coast of the Crimea.