Blackfruit cornel (Cornus sessilis Torr. ex Durand) - introduction and adaptation strategy in the Forest-Steppe of Ukraine

Abstract

Plant introduction is a justified desire to enrich the species composition of plants with new plants useful for agriculture, in particular, for horticulture. In this regard, the polymorphic family Cornaceae Bercht. and J.Presl, which is represented by a large number of fruit, medicinal, and ornamental plants, is of great value. Cornaceae, the dogwood family, is the largest family in the order Cornales, though it has just two genera - Cornus (65 species) and Alangium (20 species) [1, 2]. The family primarily distributed in northern temperate regions and tropical Asia. In northern temperature areas, Cornaceae are well known from the dogwoods Cornus. In the M.M. Gryshko National botanical Garden (NBG) of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, a gene pool of species of the genus Cornus s.l. from various geographical and floristic regions of the world has been created. It includes over 100 taxa (species, cultivars, genotypes, including the little-known rare West-North American endemic Cornus sessilis Torr. ex Durand. In 2018, the species were included in the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a stable condition but it needs constant monitoring due to high population fragmentation and gradual decline of adults. In Ukraine, it is present only in NBG [3-5]. The transferring new species from “in-situ” to “ex-situ” is the main direction of scientific activity of the NBG and the Department of Acclimatization of fruit Plants, in particular. From the point of view of practical value as a fruit, medicinal or ornamental plant, C. sessilis has not yet been sufficiently studied, but it is an endemic with a very limited nature range, so preserving and evaluating its usefulness is an important task for botanists and gardeners. A study was conducted on the adaptation features of Cornus sessilis, blackfruit Cornel, miner's Cornel, introduced into the conditions of forest-steppe zone of Ukraine. The work consisted in assessing the adaptation of C. sessilis bazed on the analyses of bio-ecological features and morphological descriptors of vegetative and generative organs of plants.