Prospects and peculiarities of the existence of the genus Oenothera L. species outside the places of cultivation in Odesa region

Abstract

Cultivated plant species can often become elements of the spontaneous flora fraction of ecotopes of varying degrees of anthropogenic transformation. An example is representatives of the genus Oenothera. Some of them are able to master extreme man-made ecotopes or take root in natural multi-component coenoses. Work with the species of the genus is complicated, since the issues of their hybridization require additional scientific developments. The species Oenothera biennis and O. rubricaulis are the most common spontaneous elements of the flora on the territory of Ukraine. At the same time, the following species were noted for several regions of the northern and central (sometimes–eastern) parts of Ukraine: O. depressa, O. erythrosepala, O. glazioviana, O. hoelscheri, O. villosa. Some species have a limited distribution: O. missuriensis, O. parviflora, O. pycnocarpa, O. fallax, O. speciosa, O. tetragona, O. wienii. According to modern literary data, information on the distribution of Oenothera species for the Odesa region is either absent or critically scarce. In the herbarium collections of the Odesa National University named after I.I. Mechnikov (MSUD), historical and modern, there are some specimens of representatives of this genus. However, all of them relate mainly to the distribution of Oenothera biennis within the borders of Ukraine, or, occasionally, the adjacent territories. The herbarium also contains specimens of other species, but their identification requires the attention of specialists. Literary summaries which contain information about the species of the Oenothera genus (Oenothera biennis) mainly characterize the centuries-old flora of the Odesa region. In general, there are very few cases of spontaneous growth of Oenothera species found in the South of Ukraine. During the floristic survey of ecotopes below the Dniester–Tyligul interfluve, we found several habitats of Oenothera glazioviana. The ecological conditions of the sites differed significantly. In general, most species of the genus Oenothera do not have a high invasive potential, however, monitoring the establishment of species of the genus in ecotopes with different anthropogenic load is advisablе.