Place of Cladrastis kentukea (Dum.-Cours.) Rudd in natural and cultural phytocenoses

Abstract

Aim. The work is devoted to the comparative analysis of plant communities, soil and climatic conditions of natural and cultivated habitats of C. kentukea. The obtained results will allow us to offer suitable ecological conditions for cultivationof this species and to select plants that can successfully exist in artificial phytocenosis together with C. kentukea. Methods. The method of complex analysis of vegetation, climatic and soil conditions of natural and cultivated habitats of C. kentukea was used. The description of C. kentukea habitats in culture was made using an expeditionary survey of the botanical gardens and dendrological parks of the Right-bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine. Results. A comparative analysis of the climatic and soil conditions of the study areas showed that there is a significant difference between the natural and thecultigenic habitats. The natural range is characterized by 2.5 times higher rainfall and twice the average air temperature. The natural habitat of C. kentukea, concentrated in the southeastern part of the North American continent, belongs to a large and monolithic subtropical moist forest sector of yellow soil, red soil and associated gleyed eluvial soil and subtropical ashen-gray soil. The Right-bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine is dominated by degraded black podzolic soil, gray and dark gray podzolic forests soils. C. kentukea grows in the second tier of mixed deciduous forests in the natural habitat, the plants of this species do not form solid arrays, it occurs by separate localities. The C. kentukea cultivation habitat is extensive, the plants occur in collections of botanical gardens and parks in Europe and Central Asia. When creating durable ornamentalartificial phytocoenoses with the participation of C. kentukea, the optimal spatial placement of plants should be observed and a multilayered planting structure should be formed. Conclusions. Comparative analysis of climatic and soil conditions of natural and cultured habitats showed a significant difference between the average long-term air temperature and the average long-term rainfall in the explored areas. We have found out that plants of the species C. kentukea under cultivated habitat in the Right-bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine are characterized by complete acclimatization, which indicates the ecologicalplasticity of the plants. In the North American natural range, C. kentukea occurs mainly in the associations of Quercus alba — Quercus rubra — Acer rubrum — Acer saccharum — Carya ovata (also described as Acer saccharum — Quercusmuehlenbergii — Cotinus obovatus), Fagus grandifolia — Acer saccharum — Quercus rubra — Quercus velutina and Quercus muehlenbergii — Carya carolinae-septentrionalis — Acer barbatum — Juniperus virginiana — Crotonalabamensis. In artificial phytocenoses of the Right-bank Forest-Steppe,plants of C. kentukea species grow successfully with Acer platanoides L., Ulmus laevis Pall., Tilia cordata Mill., Fraxinus excelsior L., Aesculus hippocastanum L. and Carpinus betulus L.