Chenopodium ucrainicum (Chenopodiaceae / Amaranthaceae sensu APG), a new diploid species: a morphological description and pictorial guide

Geographical-Historical Analysis of the Herbarium Specimens Representing the Economically Important Family Amaranthaceae (Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthaceae Clade) Collected in 1821-2022 and Preserved in the Herbarium of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow

Herbaria constitute a form of documentation, store and secure comparative material, as well as constitute an extra original gene bank. They are an invaluable database among others for the biological, ethnobotanical and agricultural sciences. The digitization of herbarium collections significantly facilitates access to archival materials; however, searching them is still time-consuming. Therefore, our work aims to analyze the herbarium collection of 8801 sheets for specimens representing the economically important family Amaranthaceae (Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthaceae clade) deposited the oldest herbarium in Poland, the herbarium of the Jagiellonian University (KRA). These specimens have been collected from almost all the continents in dozens of countries for over 200 years. The analyses conducted, including the taxonomic coverage, geographical characteristics and origin, temporal coverage and utility importance of representative species, present the discussed resources in a more accessible way and may become a more attractive form for scientists potentially interested in more advanced research work.

Ukrainian Plant Trait Database: UkrTrait v. 1.0

Background

Considering the growing demand for plant trait data and taking into account the lack of trait data from Eastern Europe, especially from its steppic region, we launched a new Ukrainian Plant Trait Database (UkrTrait v. 1.0) aiming at collecting all the available plant trait data from Ukraine.To facilitate further use of this database, we linked the trait terminology to the TRY Plant Trait Database, Thesaurus of Plant Characteristics (TOP) and Plant Trait Ontology (TO). For taxa names, we provide the crosswalks between the Ukrainian checklist and international sources, i.e. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (World Checklist of Vascular Plants (World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), World Flora Online (WFO) and Euro+Med PlantBase. We aim to integrate our data into the relevant global (TRY Plant Trait Database) and pan-European (FloraVeg.EU) databases. The current version of the database is freely available at the Zenodo repository and will be updated in the future.

New information

Until now, plant traits for the Ukrainian flora were scattered across literature, often focusing on single species and written mainly in Ukrainian. Additionally, many traits were in grey literature or remained non-digitised, which rendered them inaccessible to the global scientific community. Addressing this gap, our Ukrainian Plant Trait Database (UkrTrait v. 1.0) represents a significant step forward. We compiled and digitised plant traits from local Ukrainian literature sources. Furthermore, we performed our own field and laboratory measurements of various plant traits that were not previously available in literature. In the current version of the UkrTrait, we focus on vascular plant species that are absent from the other European trait databases, with emphasis on species that are representative for the steppe vegetation. Traits assembled from literature include life span (annuals, biennials, perennials), plant height, flowering period (flowering months), life form (by Raunkiaer), plant growth form and others. Our own measured traits include seed mass, seed shape, leaf area, leaf nitrogen concentration and leaf phosphorus concentration. The current version, i.e. UkrTrait v. 1.0, comprises digitised literature data of 287,948 records of 75 traits for 6,198 taxa and our own trait measurements of 2,390 records of 12 traits for 388 taxa.

New floristic finds in the Forest-Steppe part of Zhytomyr Region

Results of the conducted botanical surveys in the Forest-Steppe part of Zhytomyr Region are provided. Nine alien taxa (mainly xenophytes) new for the flora of the Right Bank Forest-Steppe have been identified: Allium altissimum, Amaranthus deflexus, Aphanes arvensis, Artemisia umbrosa, Crataegus sanguinea, Epilobium pseudorubescens, Erigeron strigosus, Polygonum calcatum, and Silene coronaria. Localities of these species are described and botanical-geographical comments are provided for most of taxa. There are also 64 taxa newly reported for the Forest-Steppe part of Zhytomyr Region, of which 31 are native plants, 32 – alien plants, and 1 species of unidentified origin. Twelve taxa are rare and protected at different levels. Invasive plants in need of monitoring are identified among newly reported species. According to the new data, flora of the Forest-Steppe part of Zhytomyr Region includes more than 1320 taxa of vascular plants. An important result was the discovery at the border of Zhytomyr Polissya and the Right Bank Forest-Steppe of localities of five expanding species of the genus Rubus with predominantly Central European ranges: R. bertramii, R. gracilis, R. hirtus, R. montanus, and R. plicatus. Expansion of these species of blackberries in the eastern direction within the territory of Northern Ukraine is associated with natural migration and is probably caused by the gradual climate warming.

Lockdown botany 2020: some noteworthy records of alien plants in Kyiv City and Kyiv Region

Noteworthy records of 11 alien plant species in Kyiv City and Kyiv Region made mainly in 2020 are discussed. In particular, new localities of the following taxa are reported: Amaranthus spinosus, Artemisia tournefortiana, Chenopodium ucrainicum, Celastrus orbiculatus, Datura innoxia, Dysphania ambrosioides, Erechtites hieraciifolius, Mesembryanthemum ×vascosilvae (M. cordifolium × M. haeckelianum; recently described as Aptenia ×vascosilvae and reported here for the first time for Ukraine; earlier this ornamental hybrid was misidentified as Aptenia cordifolia), Parietaria officinalis, Phytolacca americana, Thladiantha dubia. The presence in Ukraine of several additional species, such as Datura wrightii and Phytolacca acinosa s.l. (incl. P. esculenta), that may occur as escaped near places of their cultivation, is reported; these species may be confused with D. innoxia and P. americana, respectively. The growing role of alien plants escaped from cultivation (ergasiophytes) in the present-day processes of formation of the alien flora of Ukraine is emphasized.