Criteria for evaluating the state of rare plant species populations

Abstract

Klymenko H., Artemenko D., Klymenko I., Kovalenko N., Melnyk A., Butenko S., Horbas S., Tovstukha O.

Assessments of the state of rare endangered plant species are based on the results of the analysis of their individuals and populations. The article is devoted to the assessment of the state of populations of rare plant species based on a complex population analysis. The most informative is the complex population analysis, which involves the combination of several methods of population assessment and is based on the accounting of not one, but a set of significant biological and ecological features characterizing the population. But the methodology and techniques of such analysis are poorly developed so far. Research in this direction is relevant. We are tasked with identifying the main components of a complex population analysis and showing their informativeness for the comparative assessment of phytopopulations. Using the example of five populations of L. martagon and P. patens, it is shown that populations of one plant species are similar in structure of the individuals forming them, but can differ significantly in terms of population characteristics, and vice versa. Morphological variability of vegetative and generative organs is pronounced in this species. It was established that the scale of this variability varies in different ecological and phytocenotic conditions.